Le Figaro Lyon
Has Laurent Wauquiez just made an “about-face” on the subject of the ZAN (zero net artificialization) law?
In a letter addressed to the mayors of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, President LR of the regional council expressed the government's
“change in direction”
on several points of this law and significant progress on the part of the Minister of Cohesion territories, Christophe Béchu.
Among these small victories, he cites the
“tripling of
uncounted hectares” of the system, greater
“flexibility”
for rural municipalities and its implementation in small municipalities, as well as
“room for maneuver”
to adapt local town planning plans to this law and to the
“reality of their territory”
.
A new context which leads the region to consider reintegrating this ZAN law into its SRADDET (Regional planning, sustainable development and territorial equality plan), which was no longer the case until now.
“If we continue to suspend the procedure for integrating ZAN into our SRADDET, we risk on the one hand losing these achievements, having fewer hectares available and more administrative constraints, and on the other hand seeing the arrival disputes on all the decisions that we will take and all the urban planning acts that you will take",
wrote Laurent Wauquiez, welcoming
"significant progress"
and asking the mayors for a
"return on the subject"
.
Read alsoThe summary of an elected environmentalist against Laurent Wauquiez on the “zero net artificialization” law rejected
The ministry qualifies the region's declarations
At the beginning of October in Alpe d'Huez, the president of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes regional council denounced the ZAN law - aimed at stopping the concreteization of soils by 2050 by drastically reducing the surface area of buildable land -, which he called it
“ruralicide”
.
“Putting building permit decisions on rural areas under wraps means that we are denying ourselves any form of future (…).
I decided that the region withdrew from the process.
We do it in conjunction with the departments with which we discussed it
,” said the former boss of LR.
Questioned by
Le Monde
, the entourage of the Minister of Ecological Transition and Territorial Cohesion ruled out any change, ensuring that
“adaptations to rural municipalities are already in the law and implementing decrees.
The room for maneuver in urban plans is present in the ZAN circular of January 31.
The ministry, however, assures Le
Dauphiné
that
“Laurent Wauquiez has shared certain observations which, as with other of his fellow regional presidents, seem relevant to us to assess.
This is work in progress.”
Also read “A social bomb”: mayors express their reluctance towards the ZAN law
Laurent Wauquiez “eats his hat”
Enough to delight the regional PS opposition for whom Laurent Wauquiez
is “eating his hat”.
“Constrained by government directives and faced with the failure of his political strategy, Laurent Wauquiez finally decided to comply with the ZAN law (…) The regional president could not circumvent the law and we reminded him of the risks for the SRADDET.
Faced with the prospect of being placed under prefectural supervision, Laurent Wauquiez finally made an about-face
,” said the group chaired by former Minister of National Education Najat Vallaud-Belkacem in a press release.
For its part, the region assures that this is in no way
“a renunciation”
on its part, always indicating that the ZAN law
“remains a gas factory which will lead to a lot of tension”
.
“Faced with the blockage, the decision we make is to enter into discussion
,” she concluded.
At the end of last December, Laurent Wauquiez and Christophe Béchu already discussed the subject in Lyon during the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes regional COP.
The first had already pointed out
“a technocratic gas factory which will freeze the territories”
.
“Those who love landscapes, rurality and are defenders of industrial sovereignty should demand a law limiting urban sprawl,”
the minister replied, admitting the complexity of the decrees implementing this law.