For the symbol, they had placed a concrete mixer in front of the town hall.
This Saturday morning, more than 100 people gathered in Houilles to denounce urban densification, judged guilty of disfiguring a town which is gradually losing its suburban character.
But of many other evils still, like the impermeability of the grounds which causes recurrent flooding in certain districts, as last June.
Several groups of local residents are in the process of maneuvering. And in different neighborhoods, we see signs blooming on the fences of houses denouncing the "concreteization" of a city already considered "the densest of Yvelines (
7,324 inhabitants per km2 in 2018
)", as Christine explains. Sellin-Catta.
This former elected to town planning, withdrawn from municipal affairs for fifteen years, is on the front line.
For her, "the whole city is in danger" in the face of the appetite of developers and what she considers to be the inaction of the town hall.
“We are already at saturation point,” she insists.
And where are the schools, nurseries and parking lots?
she asks again.
We have calculated what the different projects represent: that's 10% of the population more, nearly 3,000 inhabitants!
"
"One has the impression that the mayor does not have the hand, that he suffers"
“We just want a political gesture,” emphasizes Eric Dumas, president of the DCO (Citizen Defense Ovilloise), which brings together the various groups of residents.
We already want all licenses that have been attacked or are being appealed to be withdrawn.
"
Houilles, this Saturday.
Residents display their discontent very publicly.
LP / SB
In the audience, the attacks against the mayor are numerous, even if some demonstrators, like Anne, admit having "voted for him, precisely because we hoped for a new vision in terms of town planning".
A year and a half later, the mother is disappointed.
“I am not against social housing, quite the contrary,” she emphasizes.
But there is no global reflection.
One has the impression that the mayor does not have the hand, that he undergoes.
"
A “too permissive” local urban plan?
Like many of her neighbors, Anne regularly receives reminders from developers interested in buying her house, calls or messages "more or less insistent which go as far as making an appointment".
She never followed up.
A few meters from his house, it is a building of around thirty apartments which should emerge from the ground in the coming months.
“Gracious remedies have been swept away, plague Marie, one of her neighbors.
We also saw the municipal police come to the street to remove posters from a house and check its owner.
It builds up the pressure, it doesn't help.
"
Julien Chambon, the mayor LREM, however, ensures not to be deaf to this grumbling which swells and even says "to understand" it, because, "on the bottom, everyone wants the same thing: a city on a human scale with green spaces and good public facilities ”.
With one nuance.
“We must not confuse special interests with the general interest,” he stresses.
Me, my job is in the general interest.
"
According to him, the current situation is the result of a local urban plan "too permissive" dating from the former mandate.
This must be revised in the coming months, a deadline that the demonstrators consider too long, considering that the elected official "has not done anything yet while it was in his campaign promises" , as one of them points out.
Projects "slowed down as much as possible"
“It's about defining exactly the city you want for tomorrow, it's not something you do every three weeks.
We don't want to rush, we don't want to rush and we want the inhabitants to be associated with it, ”explains Julien Chambon.
A cabinet was commissioned to carry out the diagnosis.
"The state of the city is not satisfactory today," says the mayor.
However, it is always more attractive because it is particularly well served.
"" While waiting "for the new plan to be drawn up, Julien Chambon says he is doing" all he can to slow down the projects as much as possible ".
A dozen have already been rejected according to him.
"But if a promoter wants to go to the legal clash, he can find the weapons to constrain us", he regrets.
"In any case, we should not believe that we will not build any more, if only because of the imperatives linked to the SRU law
(Solidarity and urban renewal)
", indicates Monika Belala, councilor of left opposition.
But like the demonstrators, the elected official said to regret “the lack of transparency and of a global strategy”.
A charter as a “warm-up”
In recent weeks, the city has embarked on the drafting of a charter for developers who have Houilles in their sights.
The demonstrators see in it "a gadget at two francs six sous".
"This is something that was quickly achievable," replied Julien Chambon, who saw it "as a warm-up" before the famous revision of the PLU.
"And it is nevertheless binding since all promoters will be asked to sign it," he underlines.
This is the prerequisite for any discussion.
"And the mayor concluded:" I especially want to tell people:
Stop signing promises to sell.
»Because, he assures him, then,« the projects will not be done ».
