“Haussmann-type work. » This is how Emile Meunier, Paris councilor from the Les Ecologistes group, describes the Paris City Hall’s objective of creating, by 2040, 300 hectares of green spaces open to the public in the capital, i.e. the equivalent of more than 400 football fields, even 600 according to him. Announced on the occasion of the vote on the new Local Urban Plan (PLU) project at the end of May, the figure makes certain environmental associations cringe, who see nothing but wind in it, and arouses much controversy regarding to its real content, so much so that the very serious Environmental Authority has politely reframed the executive.
The figure is not engraved in stone of the promises of the PLU project, but the new text indicates in its guidelines wanting to “preserve and increase the network of green spaces, parks and gardens, to target by 2040 the ratio of 10 m² of green spaces open to the public per inhabitant recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) “. However, Parisians today have on average 8.2 m2 per inhabitant, including the two Bois de Boulogne and Vincennes, which today come under the administrative jurisdiction of the city. Without the wood, the ratio drops to less than 3 m2.
52 hectares in the PLU
To achieve these 10 m2 per inhabitant, counting woods, it would be necessary to create 304 hectares, according to a note from Apur from May 2022. A colossal project, since between 2006 and 2021, only 77.7 hectares were created. Which means that the town hall will have to multiply its rate of creation of green spaces by three or four, going from around 5 hectares per year to almost 18. Is this realistic? And how will the town hall go about it?
To obtain 300 hectares of green spaces for the public, there are essentially two ways to do it: create green spaces, or open up existing spaces. The bioclimatic PLU plans to create approximately 52 hectares of new parks and gardens, through planned development operations, or the “pastillage” of certain spaces (locations reserved by the Paris City Hall to transform them into green spaces during the resale). But what of the remaining 250 hectares, which are not specified?
Incentive to the private sector and negotiations with the State
In the short term, First Deputy Emmanuel Grégoire explains that he has around thirty hectares already targeted by 2026. For the rest, he is banking heavily on the private sector incentive created by the PLU project, which provides that each plot above 150 m2 must include up to 65% of open ground. Of the 300 hectares, Emmanuel Grégoire estimates that a “good hundred” will be taken care of by public authorities, the rest “dependent on private actors”. The Renault-Nissan dealership in Picpus (12th), which must make way for a new residential area, could thus accommodate a 4,500 m2 park open to the public, if the negotiations go in the right direction, indicates Emmanuel Grégoire, at example title.
In addition to this incentive from the private sector, the First Deputy is also banking on the numerous green spaces that exist within early childhood facilities, higher education, sports facilities and other administrative buildings, some of which could ultimately be open to the general public. public, or be greened and then open to the public. “The Val-de-Grâce garden will be open to the public before the end of the mandate”, announces 20 minutes the first deputy. The Parisian Urban Planning Workshop (Apur) carried out a study on the subject in 2021, in which it indicates having identified within Parisian institutions “1,145.2 hectares of surface area of unvegetated free space” which could partly be transformed. Likewise interior courtyards of buildings, called “block hearts”, which could be open to the public. “The 12th arrondissement has a total of more than 40 hectares of vegetation in the heart of the block,” Apur tells us.
Very invested in the PLU project, the environmentalist municipal councilor Emile Meunier believes that it will be necessary to “bury the hatchet to work with the State”, which still keeps control over certain neighborhoods, such as Avenue Foch, where the advisor considers it possible to create “6 hectares at once” in the center. It would also be possible to “expand” and extend certain existing parks, such as Bercy Park, by reducing the roads.
“No one believes in 300 hectares”
But is such an objective, described as “herculean” by Emile Meunier, even realistic? Because among the opponents of the majority and even within certain environmental associations, the figure arouses doubtful expressions. The group Changer Paris (Les Républicains) describes it as “an unrealistic and completely demagogic objective”. “It’s not realistic, because there are neither the budgets nor the money,” criticizes Christine Nedelec, from France Nature Environnement Paris. “No one believes in 300 hectares, they know very well that they will not achieve it, there is no chance that that will happen”, tackles Yves Contassot, former deputy of Bertrand Delanoë, in charge of the environment.
More polite but direct, the regional mission of the Environmental Authority, which delivered its opinion on the Paris PLU project on September 13, recommends “demonstrating in a spatial manner the capacity of the Parisian fabric, with the means implemented by the PLU (…) to open nearly 300 hectares of additional green spaces to the public.”
“Vegetated” spaces, and not “green spaces”?
Emmanuel Grégoire acknowledges being aware that this is a “very ambitious” objective, but considers the objective “realistic”. Asked about the details of his roadmap, where we find both parks and lawns on slabs, the first deputy nevertheless qualifies the objective: “It is not a question of hectares of green spaces, but green spaces [contrairement à ce qui a été annoncé lors de la présentation du PLU, où l’exécutif parlait bien de « 300 hectares d’espaces verts »] “. “The WHO standard is not necessarily hectares where you can walk, it does not differentiate between 10 m2 of lawn or wood,” he adds.
Contacted by us, the World Health Organization clarified that there is no universally accepted definition of a “green space”, which can include spaces with a “natural surface”, trees in the city. or even ponds or lakes. “The WHO standard is not the alpha and omega”, also says Emmanuel Grégoire, who insists that “the objective is revegetation”. “So let’s not call it green space. And let’s not say that we respect WHO standards. We maintain confusions which prevent us from giving a consistent image of reality,” criticizes Yves Contassot.
A green space meter on the facade of City Hall
Lest this objective fall by the wayside, or be minimized, the environmental group at the Council of Paris installed a counter of hectares of green spaces on their site, which to date is at zero, and is pushing to install such a counter on the pediment of the Town Hall. They also submitted a wish to the menu of the next Paris Council, which notably requests “a definition and precise identification of the 300 hectares of green spaces open to the public, by typology, with a timetable for completion, a methodology and credible commitments for their realization” as well as a “multi-year plan for financing these green spaces”.
“It’s doable provided you have the sacred fire, but I think that Hidalgo no longer has the sacred fire, and I think that they are not ready to have a green space meter on their table of bedside”, tackles Emile Meunier. In fact, the idea of a meter triggers more laughter than enthusiasm among Emmanuel Grégoire, for whom it would otherwise be necessary to install “many meters at the town hall, for social housing, poverty…” “I I do not want us to focus on this objective of 300 hectares, my objective is to create a bioclimatic PLU to serve a historic environmental issue,” says the First Deputy.
The 10 m2 is “not an official recommendation” from the WHO
In fact, and this is surprising, the World Health Organization itself, contacted by 20 minutes, denies having ever recommended this standard of 10 square meters per inhabitant… “The mention of 10 m2 per inhabitant may have been part of WHO documents where several recommendations were under debate, but it is not a recommendation official. A standard number of square meters per person could be misleading, since green spaces should ideally be nearby and accessible to the public, not just large spaces in the suburbs, which are more difficult to access,” explains the OMS, which emphasizes the importance of “small green spaces everywhere in a city, within five to ten minutes on foot”.
This is also the opinion of the Environmental Authority, which considers that the ratio of 10 m2 of green spaces open to the public per inhabitant is an indicator “not robust enough to assess the accessibility of green spaces for the public, and could usefully be replaced by a series of indicators recommended by the WHO, based in particular on the distance to green spaces, their size and their opening hours.
Asked by 20 minutes on this WHO recommendation which is not one, Emmanuel Grégoire answers us this: “I am very surprised” before adding that this will have “no impact” on the PLU, and that he has “ always knew that this was not a robust standard.”
“We must protect what we already have”
Contested by the WHO itself, mocked by environmental associations who consider it unrealistic, will the objective of 300 hectares disappear from the final text of the PLU? Other objectives are also singled out, such as the one which sets 40% of dewatered space by 2040. “It’s a little less than the sum of the two woods. It’s wishful thinking,” summarizes Yves Contassot.
Especially since for many environmental defenders, the real issue would not be the creation or opening of green spaces, but the preservation of what already exists, while tree cutting in Paris is less and less accepted by the population. “We must protect what we already have. Dedensifying, debitumizing is expensive, and the land you recover is not of good quality,” estimates Christine Nedelec, president of France Nature Environnement Paris, who intends to provide her suggestions during the public inquiry phase, all throughout 2024. Before the final vote on the PLU, at the end of next year.