How and how much Macron invests in cities trying not to consume land
With the France Relance plan, the Macron presidency also set itself the goal of reducing land use in cities. Enrico Martial's article
The 100 billion euro “France Relance” plan of 3 September last year – in addition to substantial measures on the social level, on hydrogen or on the reduction of taxes for businesses – also contains some reinforcements to ongoing policies.
On urban planning, for example, the Macron presidency has set itself the objective of reducing land consumption ( zéro artificialisation nette ). The strategy is widespread throughout Europe: in Germany it has been operational since 2003 (reduction of consumption from 115 hectares / day in 2004 to 30 hectares / day in 2020), but also in Italy it is being discussed, albeit late, with draft laws. always in progress and some regional laws adopted. The issue has been the subject of various communications from the European Commission which – even without being able to produce a directive – has in any case indicated in 2050 the date by which to eliminate the consumption of new soil in Europe.
In France, also lagging behind Germany, the strategy appeared in the biodiversity plan approved by the government in July 2018. In 2019, a report on the instruments to be adopted by “France Stratégie” followed. This is the agency that will once again be called "Commissariat au Plan" with the arrival as president of François Bayrou, appointed on 3 September last.
For some of those instruments, the France Relance plan provided 650 million in two main measures. The first – of "urban concentration" ( densification urbaine) – will see the assignment of 350 million euros to the mayors of the municipalities with the strongest expansion (therefore with land consumption), for example by granting aid, on the basis of building permits and in within urban limits, to raise a building under construction by one or two floors, passing, for example, from 20 to 30 new apartments, rather than using non-urbanized land, the greenfields .
The second establishes a fund with 300 million euros for abandoned industrial areas ( friches or brownfields ) or underutilized urban areas (there are about 1375 in France), to shift the demand for new buildings. Already announced by Barbara Pompili, minister of ecological transition of the new government of Jean Castex, on July 27, at the end of an " Environmental Defense Council ", a sort of CIPE-Environment composed of the ministers who follow the issue, the fund will serve to cover the extra costs of demolition or de-pollution that make these areas less attractive economically than agricultural land, or “turnkey” redevelopments. There are various examples of reuse of disused spaces, such as in Italy and in much of Europe: for example in Normanville, 100 km east of Paris (a case of compensation for extra costs) or at the tanneries site in Barjol , 80 km north-east of Marseille, with a complete recovery, or in the 25 recovered hectares of Fives Cail in Lille, which hosted one of the largest and most historic French industrial sites. At the Environmental Defense Council (precisely a CIPE-Environment) on July 27, other surrounding measures were announced: the moratorium for new suburban shopping centers and a census of abandoned sites with relative maps , already accessible in beta.
The French recovery plan then adds a complex action aimed at the revitalization of historic urban centers, which are in relative decline in some areas of the country, on which there is a public action through the "Bank of the territories", the name of a management of the Cassa Depositi and loans born in 2018. Several national instruments and programs are supported or accelerated, both for the “small towns of the future”, for the “city centers” (Coeur de ville). 100 million complement the 200 already allocated in the past for action on city centers, to which are added loans for 500 million. These sums are in part already in charge of the Bank of the territories, but the plan contributes with an additional 180 million. The action focuses on the recovery of shops and commercial activities: from 2008 to 2015, also due to the crisis, the missed rental rate went from 7.2 to 12%. There is an intention to recover about 2,000 commercial establishments between 2020 and 2021 and to continue at a rate of 1,300 per year.
Therefore, in large and small cities – including urban concentration, recovery of abandoned areas and interventions in city centers – the French recovery plan invests about 830 million euros, and exceeds one billion euros if we add soft mobility and cycle paths. . This is an amount to which the 6.5 billion for the energy recovery of buildings must be added, for a total of 7.5-8 billion euros.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/mondo/come-e-quanto-macron-investe-sulle-citta-cercando-di-non-consumare-suolo/ on Sat, 12 Sep 2020 05:20:38 +0000.