Here, it is a fence wall whose height is not suitable, there a gate or windows not up to the expected standards, further on a housing estate that has been waiting for months to be able to emerge from the ground ...
Almost every time, the answer is final: “Unfavorable opinion”, “incomplete as it is”.
This concise opinion, so dreaded by town halls and residents' town planning departments, is that of the architect of the Buildings of France (ABF).
In the departments, it is this expert, placed under the authority of the prefect, who delivers opinions on requests for authorization to occupy the land, whether it is a question of building permits or planning permission. , the permit to demolish ...
In Paris, a major consultation on town planning
A role of "guardian of the temple" which regularly finds on its way the grumbling of elected officials dissatisfied with seeing one of their projects of the mandate prevented.
With a central question: how to reconcile the necessary preservation of the historical heritage and the imperative development of the municipalities?
In Ile-de-France and in the Oise, where the architectural and historical heritage is among the most important in France, the hitches between elected officials and Departmental Architecture and Heritage Units (Udap) regularly feed the chronicle.
In Paris, the mayor (PS) Anne Hidalgo recently announced the launch of a major consultation of Parisians on town planning and development of the capital.
A way, according to some, to circumvent the opinion of the architects of the Buildings of France who could, on several files, slow down the city's projects.
"Something that falls under the Ancien Régime"
In the Oise, the quarrels between the mayors and the local ABF, Jean-Lucien Guenoun, have just taken an unprecedented turn.
For the first time, some 230 elected officials of the department, mayors, senators, departmental councilors, signed an inflammatory motion denouncing the "diktats" and "systematic blockages" of the expert.
In the process, the General Inspectorate of Cultural Affairs (Igac), placed under the direct authority of the Minister of Culture, took up the case.
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At the origin of this sling of a new kind?
Caroline Cayeux, the mayor (DVD) of Beauvais.
She also had to deal with Jean-Lucien Guenoun, in particular within the framework of the urban renewal of the Saint-Lucien district in Beauvais.
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"It emerges from my regular conversations with you that we have reached a
fed up
situation
," wrote the mayor of the city prefecture, inviting her counterparts to sign the motion.
“We can no longer tolerate these injunctions.
The current architect [...] complicates, blocks or financially burdens many projects of all kinds.
"
In the said motion, entitled "Heritage must live", the charge is even more scathing.
“For more than ten years that he has raged in the Oise, he has become the scarecrow of the mayors, can we read there.
There is something of the Ancien Régime in this conception of an administration which is accountable to no one.
The ABF has acquired the right of life and death on any urban or architectural project in the Oise, because such is its good pleasure.
"
"I did not find anyone among my colleagues to defend him"
When Denis Flour learned of the motion, he didn't hesitate for long before signing it.
“This text, I could have written it, confides the mayor (SE) of Maignelay-Montigny, in the Picardy Plateau.
I recognized myself in this call.
And that's a widely shared sentiment.
I couldn't find anyone to defend him.
"
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Oise: the difficult and expensive maintenance of historic monuments
In his town of 2,600 inhabitants, a social housing project has been waiting for months to emerge.
“More than a year that it lasts, blows the city councilor.
There have already been two building permits filed.
But no matter how much the promoter amended his project, it was still reworked for architectural reasons.
I am not against the fact that there are rules, but perhaps we have to find the right balance.
"
"It is fun on the back of the taxpayer"
Near Compiègne, the mayor (SE) of Venette, Romuald Seels, did not hesitate to sign the motion either.
In his town of almost 3,000 inhabitants, which has three listed buildings in a very close area, "90% of projects are reworked," says the city council.
"We are the most mistreated, chokes Romuald Seels.
I even wonder if he's not enjoying it.
In my town, I see people at their wit's end, with permits refused five times, to such an extent that their homes are sometimes in peril.
Some no longer sleep at night.
"
Like this inhabitant of the east of the department, who does not take offense.
"An abuse of power outright," he scolds.
For more than a year, “this unreachable person” put a strain on him for an extension of 15 square meters.
The height, for this septuagenarian?
“In the original project, there was brick, in line with the building, it was very qualitative.
The requests of the ABF made it impossible to achieve, except to replace the whole by a veranda, much more visually impacting ... "
Venette, this Monday.
"In my town, I see people at their end, with permits refused five times," laments Romuald Seels, one of the signatories of the motion.
LP / Alexis Bisson
The ABF receivables also weigh on the funds of the municipalities.
In Venette, it was the new canteen in particular that paid the price for the architect's supposed intransigence.
"He made me go up a wall because it was not in the mind and there was 2 cm of gap, still rants the city councilor.
But we needed this canteen, so we redid the work.
»Total cost of the project: 980,000 euros.
“He put me a 20% socket, rants Romuald Seels.
It is fun on the back of the taxpayer.
With him, there are never any subtractions, only additions!
"
"We arrive at situations which almost go against the desired goal"
The decisions of Jean-Lucien Guenoun also go badly on the side of Crèvecoeur-le-Grand, 3600 inhabitants, west of the Oise.
At the town hall, because of the old windows, the municipal employees continue to keep mittens, coats and scarves in winter.
"We have always been refused to change them," scolds the mayor (SE) of the town, Aymeric Bourleau, signatory of the motion.
It's surreal.
We just wanted to put in double glazing.
The situation is excessive, we arrive at situations which almost go against the desired goal.
"
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And now, will the motion of the elected officials of the department make it possible to move the lines?
In the letter, the latter call for "several strong gestures which allow the restoration of lost confidence".
The signatories demand, in particular, "renewed interlocutors" and "a radical and rapid re-examination of the too many overdue files in our municipalities".
According to the Departmental Unit for Architecture and Heritage, a dialogue has already been initiated with the Union of Mayors of Oise (UMO) to “seek avenues for improvement”.
