Seine-et-Marne: the small village of 500 souls mobilized against the arrival of the giant Zalando

"Zaland-outside": this is the name of the collective created to stop the project to set up the German e-commerce platform Zalando, specializing in the sale of shoes and clothing, in the concerted activities zone ( Zac) from Tertre to Montereau-sur-le-Jard, a village of 530 souls.

The petition launched in this direction on March 26 has this Friday more than 2,100 signatures.

The confidentiality requested by the German group is now stale.

"It's an open secret, but we knew it was Zalando", comments Geraldine Victoire, one of the instigators of the collective, who lives in the village.

The revision of the local urban plan (PLU), which will end on April 15, has ignited the powder.

"During the development of the Zac du Tertre, the PLU limited the size of the warehouses to 30,000 square meters or to satisfy Zalando's growing appetite for the French market, the mayor estimated that would be at the PLU of s' adapt to this project and not the other way around.

The authorization increases to 140,000 square meters!

», Protests the collective.

The Melun Val de Seine agglomeration community (CAMVS), to which Montereau-sur-le Jard belongs, owns the land.

They fear noise around the clock

Among the sources of concern, the landscape integration of the site and the height of the future warehouse of 140,000 square meters.

“The authorized height would drop from 15 to 20 meters.

But the proposed hedges are deciduous trees.

The building will be visible seven months out of twelve!

“, Alarmed the members of the collective.

The heavy goods traffic generated by this "tin monster" also irritates opponents.

“The mayor is talking about 150 trucks a day at most.

But how can a warehouse five times the size of Colissimo's, opened at the end of 2020 just opposite, which generates traffic of 300 trucks per day, not generate more traffic?

"

They fear a 3x8 operation, with constant noise day and night seven days a week. “Heavy traffic leads to higher accidents, due to an uninterrupted flow of vehicles.

"

Opposed to the project despite the 2,000 jobs announced

The 2,000 jobs advertised at Zalando leave them skeptical.

“E-commerce does not create anything, it destroys jobs, farmland, oxygen and living together.

It destroys our traders and artisans, our town centers…, assert the members of the collective who are also wondering in the long term.

Is our region, once the food land and breadbasket of France, in the process of transforming itself into an industrial platform?

What do we do with the climate law commitment?

"

On the contrary, the mayor (SE) Christian Hus and his deputy for town planning Daniel Butaud believe that they are doing “everything to defend the interest of the village” and are thinking of organizing “a public meeting in the open air by the end of May. ".

Newsletter The essential of 77

A tour of the news of Seine-et-Marne and the IDF

Subscribe to the newsletterAll newsletters

"I would not have communicated on the project?

But the city council voted on October 14, 2020 and a report was sent to all residents' mailboxes.

Zalando's name was mentioned only once in the minutes.

This company wanted to stay in the shadows so as not to be politically recovered, ”says the mayor.

His arguments to calm the spirits?

“The Zac exists anyway.

It was identified years ago by the Ile-de-France master plan as a place of economic development.

Modifying the PLU allows us to have leverage to best preserve our living environment.

"

"150 trucks per day maximum" according to the mayor

Recalling that this Zac is "very out of center" in relation to the hamlets of Aubigny and Montereau-sur-le-Jard, Christian Hus returns to the landscape integration of the warehouse.

“We worked with Zalando.

There will be about fifty trees 10 meters high at the plantation.

The principle is fixed.

Some are evergreen, others are deciduous.

But the cash is not stopped ”.

The elected officials were able to choose the color of the warehouse: “Several shades of gray so that it fits into the landscape.

The mayor recalls that the municipality had no say in the face of Colissimo's yellow cube.

It is opposite the gigantic Colissimo warehouse, which opened at the end of 2020, that Zalando should set up. / LP / SB  

The flow of trucks?

“According to Zalando, there will be 150 trucks per day maximum in the period leading up to the holiday season, 130 the rest of the year.

They don't do 3X8s and don't work on Sundays.

They will not pass through the village.

The more than 3.5 tons are already prohibited in Aubigny.

We obtained that the D 35 is also prohibited for this type of truck ”, affirms the elected official.

As for those of Colissimo, "they take the main axes because they deliver the sorting centers, not the individuals", specifies his deputy.

What about the soils artificialized by the project?

“This Zac covers 40 hectares including 20 for Zalando.

But we escaped a Deferred Development Zone (Zad) of 200 hectares that the State imposed on us.

Prefect Coudert finally withdrew us from Zad.

There are 200 hectares of agricultural land!

"