The green amphitheater on Place du Trocadéro, the pedestrianized Pont d’Iéna or even the planted promenade on Quai Branly: these computer-generated images should soon become reality after the vote of the Council of Paris which validated, by 93 votes “for” and 66 “against”, the compatibility of the local urban plan (PLU) with the “OnE” project.
The pedestrianization and revegetation of this world-famous perspective, which annually welcomes 20 million visitors, is “a great project for the benefit of local residents and Parisians”assured Emmanuel Grégoire, first deputy to the mayor PS Anne Hidalgo, to try to gather around a project at 110 million euros which divides.
The vast majority of the 6,000 contributors to the public participation by electronic means (PPVE), conducted in the fall, have thus expressed their opposition. “We ended up with 90% negative opinions, but nevertheless you go for it, you continue”, castigated Danielle Simonnet (LFI). Rachida Dati, LR mayor of the 7th arrondissement, denounced a “regular concreting” and underlined “traffic delays which will necessarily affect residential areas”. Catherine Ibled (LREM) also requested the stop “of these big expensive projects”.
“Local residents ask for a minimal project, the maintenance of the site and do not require huge things”, had supported in the morning Christine Nedelec, president of the associations France Nature Environnement (FNE) Paris and SOS Paris, during a press briefing on the forecourt of the Hôtel de Ville.
/2022/02/09/phpbV7iB2.jpg)
The hopes of these opponents rested on the elected ecologists, allies of Anne Hidalgo, often opposed to the major urban planning projects launched during previous terms of office (Tour Triangle, Austerlitz, Bruneseau). After winning on two points, they finally saved Anne Hidalgo from an open crisis within her majority.
First, the northern part of the Champ-de-Mars, which was to be included in the redevelopment, will be subject to a moratorium until the 2024 Olympic Games. “The rehabilitation of totality” of the esplanade will then be done in one go, according to the amendment of the Greens which was adopted. This part constituted only 5% of the total surface of the project, had previously relativized the executive.
Another compromise found between the left groups, “the City of Paris undertakes to gradually reduce the events authorized on the site in order to reach in 2025 a total of 250 days of rest where no event will take place on the green spaces of the site”. Either after the 2024 Paris Olympics. A management commission for these events will be created, welcomes the environmental group, which says it has obtained “significant progress”.
Work should begin in March or April, but only the part located on the right bank (Trocadéro, Warsaw) and along the Seine (Quai Jacques-Chirac) should be completed for the Games. The surroundings of the Tower and the Pont d’Iéna will be redeveloped in a second phase. The works will allow the creation of 1.6 hectares of green spaces in the open ground, underlines the executive, who also promises a slight reduction in the footprint of the buildings of the Société d’exploitation de la Tour Eiffel (Sete ).
Emmanuel Grégoire also formally challenged the opponents’ argument that 80 trees would be felled. “We will plant 227 trees and cut down 21, for a net balance of 206 trees”said Anne Hidalgo’s right-hand man in charge of town planning, also promising that “the whole” historical furniture would be preserved and restored. He concludes : “This site must be worthy of the image of Paris to welcome the whole world on the occasion of the Olympic and Paralympic Games.”