It is the master document of all local urban plans and other development plans for the Ile-de-France region: the “Sdrif”, the master plan for the Île-de-France region, was presented at the beginning of April by the Ile-de-France region -of France. But its content is considered too timid by the environmental associations grouped within France Nature Environnement Ile-de-France, which on Wednesday May 17 made public a white paper analyzing the first version of this flagship document in terms of environment and urban planning. , which we deliver to you in preview.
“The guidelines are extremely general and lack ambition, without indications of quantified and precise objectives” criticizes the white paper, which 20 minutes has procured. “We need a more prescriptive Sdrif, otherwise we will have the same result as the 2013 document, with major principles that are not realized, explains Luc Blanchard, co-president of FNE Île-de-France. In the 2013 Sdrif it was indicated that logistics warehouses should be set up along railway lines or rivers, but this is not what happened. If the objectives are not accompanied by binding measures, it remains fine speeches”.
Concrete less, or much less
As for the quantified objectives that are given, these are considered too timorous by FNE Ile-de-France, like the objective of reducing the consumption of spaces by 20% per decade (i.e. say, that the rate of progress is slowed down by 20%), while the national objective of reducing the rate of land take is 50% in 2030. “The true preservation of natural, agricultural and forest areas requires a strategy much more ambitious reduction of artificialization, which limits the possibility of compensating by destroying rich and functional soils”, estimates FNE in its white paper.
Impossible for Jean-Philippe Dugoin-Clément, vice-president of the Ile-de-France region in charge of Housing and Development. “We are already the most virtuous region in Europe. The Ile-de-France is less than 5% of the artificialized space of France for 31% of the GDP and 18% of the population. If we had the average rate of artificialization of the other regions, it would be the entire territory that would be concreted. We have already made efforts to compact our urbanization… 75% of the territory is classified as a natural agricultural and forest zone and we will not drop below 75% in 2040”, argues the elected official.
An “irrational” construction objective?
Another criticism of the FNE, the production target of 70,000 housing units, although enshrined in law, “does not seem compatible with achieving the ZAN [Zéro Artificialisation Nette] in 2050”, estimates FNE Ile-de-France. The Zan approach consists of reducing the extension of cities as much as possible by limiting construction on natural or agricultural spaces and compensating for this construction with new plantations and it is included in the government’s Biodiversity Plan, adopted in 2018. production of 70,000 housing units is artificial in view of the annual increase of 50,000 new inhabitants in the region and the composition of households which has been 2.3 people since 2006”, justifies FNE in its document, while Luc Blanchard admits that without this figure, the Sdrif would have simply been retorted.
“It is a legal objective, it is the law on Greater Paris, our document must comply with the law and this corresponds to a need for housing, justifies Jean-Philippe Dugoin-Clément. We are in a region that is facing an unprecedented housing crisis, freezing it would be a social disaster. We don’t want to put people in the situation of not being able to find housing. And for the same number of Ile-de-France residents, we will need more housing because of the cohabitation. “According to the vice-president of the region, the Sdrif-e also sets a target of 90% of new housing in “urban recomposition”, that is to say, built on already artificialized spaces. Clearly, not on natural spaces.
Environment VS Economy
For Jean-Philippe Dugoin-Clément, the difficulty of the Sdrif is that it must reconcile a number of imperatives, often contradictory. In this case, it works with “two pillars, environmental and economic”, and for each of these aspects, “lobbies on both sides which are maximalist”. “We will never be able to give full satisfaction to everyone,” said the elected official. On the FNE side, “the search for attractiveness and economic development of the Île-de-France Region is envisaged without taking into account the ecological and climatic emergency”, which should take precedence, given the gravity of the situation. This is evidenced by the association, for example, one of the orientations of the Sdrif, which does not set any reduction in traffic on airport platforms.
The debate is not over anyway, citizens can still contribute until May 31 on the online consultation platform. The document will still be subject to modifications, before being submitted to the vote of the elected officials at the beginning of July.