Ladislas Polski, leader of the opposition in La Trinité, alongside other elected officials from his group “A New Breath for La Trinité” and the presidents of three local associations, took the initiative to write to the Prefect of Alpes-Maritimes to bring attention to the conditions of the sale of several elements of the municipal heritage.
Together, elected officials and association presidents question the policy of selling municipal properties, which they believe the municipality is not making the most of.
Moreover, they regret that the mayor does not respond to the questions they pose about the planned activities following these sales on several strategic municipal sites.
Elected officials and associations have formed a “Collective for Quality of Life in La Trinité” which mobilizes for actions and also reflects on the future of the municipality within various thematic work groups on major subjects affecting residents’ daily lives.
They have therefore communicated the elements they wish to bring to the attention of the Prefect and citizens regarding the sales of municipal properties.
Ladislas Polski kindly summarized the content of the file and its chronology:
“- Parcels AC 73 and AC 74 located in the La Plana neighborhood were the subject of a sales agreement for
1,100,000 euros to the Promex company for housing development, without prior public communication which could have led to competitive bidding.\nThis sales agreement resulted in an appeal to the Administrative Court, on which the Court has not yet ruled on the merits.
– The land of “Collet du Moulin” (formerly known as “Attia”) was subject to a sales agreement for 2,020,000 euros to the SCI Danat announced by resolution no. 7 of the CM on September 28, 2017.
During the municipal council on September 27, a new resolution was presented acknowledging the withdrawal of SCI DANAT on June 22, 2018, which renounced the sale due to the appeal by the “3T” association.
Simultaneously, a new sales agreement for 2,020,000 euros to the CG Mediterranée company was announced.
Once again, to our knowledge, no official public communication that could have led to competitive bidding was made.
On the contrary, even municipal councilors learned simultaneously of the withdrawal of the previously announced buyer and the signing of a sales agreement with a new buyer, without knowing how he was informed of the opportunity to purchase the land.
We questioned the mayor about the activities that were intended to be accommodated on this land of “Collet du Moulin”, located at the edge of the Paillon, in close proximity to the Anatole France area and traffic routes, and its potential development, which obviously involves strategic territorial issues. No precise answer was granted to us.
– The former municipal gymnasium known as “La Satem” (plot registered as AE 68 of 2100 m2 including a building of 1636 m2) was sold to the SCI Esperenza for 850,000 euros by resolution no. 5 on April 9, 2015, after a valuation by the departments at 918,000 euros.
This resolution was reported during the municipal council on May 26, 2015, in resolution no. 6 which changed the destination of the premises so they could be partly occupied by commercial activities.
No precise answer was provided to our questions about the proposed activities in the whole building.
In September 2018, we learned from a real estate agency’s website that a part of the building previously sold by the municipality was for sale at a price of 1,599,000 euros, almost twice its purchase price from the municipality.
We questioned Mr. Mayor in vain about his possible actions in the event that such a sale with added value detrimental to the municipality actually occurred.
More broadly, even though we are well aware of our municipality’s difficult financial situation, we question the motivation behind this “dilapidation” of municipal heritage: if the objective for the municipality is to generate revenue, why not choose to proceed with calls for expressions of interest to bring competitive offers and make the most of it for municipal finances, even if the law does not require a call for tenders for sales of private municipal domain properties?
Even if opting to sell, why does the municipality not seek to do so with the obligation of infrastructure construction rather than risk witnessing a resale by others with added value?
Thus, we wish to draw your attention to these cases so that the municipal heritage sale decisions, which concern all the residents of La Trinité, may be more transparent to elected officials and citizens.”
