Fallow land on one side of the road, agricultural land for sale on the other... It has now been six years since the Gard commune of Caissargues, a small town of 4,200 inhabitants bordering Nîmes, has been supporting the project. to build here a housing estate of 370 housing units – including 170 social housing units – which would allow it to compensate, somewhat, for its deficit of 265 low-rent housing units.
Like 1,100 French municipalities subject to the Solidarity and Urban Renewal Law (SRU), Caissargues does not respect its obligation to have 25% social housing.
In several small towns, this deficiency is sometimes a deliberate intention of the municipal council.
This is not the case for Caissargues and its mayor without label, Olivier Fabregoul.
“I want social housing.
It was also in our electoral program in 2020,”
loudly proclaims the councilor whose first mandate it is.
“
The young people of the village do not have the means to buy in Caissargues which has suffered from strong real estate inflation.
However, we need young families for our schools
,” he argues.
Doubling the tax
A few months ago, "Mr. Mayor" received bad news from the state services.
While all the studies were green, a hydrogeological firm issued an unfavorable and prohibitive opinion for its housing project.
The construction of a housing estate on this site would endanger the drilling of water used to supply military installations, which therefore do not pay for water to the public service set up by the urban community.
A gratuity that the Army does not wish to give up at any price!
Because the military well is on the other side of the departmental road and above all pre-dates the project, Olivier Fabregoul is bitter.
“State services have not discovered this drilling today.
And we are told, like that, after six years and 180,000 euros of studies spent in vain that we cannot build anything here.
The prefectural decision is experienced with all the more bitterness since a few weeks ago, the municipality with a deficit in social housing saw the tax to which it is subject double for non-compliance with the legal objective.
“We went from 50,000 euros to 100,000 euros. However, I had a promise from the prefect at the time that the amount of this tax would not be increased
,” assures Olivier Fabregoul.
For its part, the prefecture services claim to “support the commune of Caissargues”.
Recourse to court
It prevents.
His decision here seems all the more absurd as Caissargues does not have any other land on which to build such a housing development.
Well almost !
There is land available but it is classified as a Natura 2000 zone, therefore unbuildable by nature.
Thus the municipality seems condemned to find itself under-provided with social housing while the State, incapable of providing an alternative to the village, continues to collect its tithe.
A week ago, Olivier Fabregoul therefore filed an appeal before the administrative court of Nîmes to contest the increase in the levy to which his municipality, despite its stated efforts, is subject.
In the absence of building land, when developers acquire old houses and generally have a large plot of land in order to build several lots of individual houses or small R+2 complexes, i.e. the maximum authorized by the local urban plan, the municipality requires them to integrate 30 to 40% social housing.
Welcoming young households
The consequence of new large-scale construction is not neutral for the village.
Because the taxation it is subject to represents 7% of its investment budget, Caissargues has delayed certain works such as the construction of a new school intended to replace the two buildings currently in use.
Looking across the field where he still hopes to be able to build his housing estate and accommodate young households, Olivier Fabregoul points to "Le bois des Enfants", a green space where the town had gotten into the habit of planting a tree every time a family welcomes a newborn.
“
I don’t know why this tradition was lost for a while.
We want to relaunch it
,” he assures, before getting angry about the latest demographic observations made by the head of state.
“But what’s the point if the President of the Republic calls for a “demographic rearmament” which excludes Caissargues?”