The Cap 3000 shopping center extension project, which roughly plans to double its size in the next five years, as approved by the Metropolitan Council, continues to raise doubts and controversies: of course, on one hand, there is the forecast of additional jobs, a rare commodity in this period, which attracts the interest of elected officials; on the other hand, a less commercial vision, more concerned with the balance of the territory given the planned density of these establishments in a restricted space, with the additional potential dangers concerning the Var River.
After the CCI press release, which sounded the alarm and reminded of the negative impact on local commerce, it is now the turn of the Nice city and metropolitan councilor Emmanuelle Gaziello to enter the debate.
The Nice Côte d’Azur metropolis will sign an agreement with the holding company that owns Cap 3000 to authorize and support, with the green light from the CDAC of Alpes Maritimes, the doubling of the surface area despite the crisis and at the risk of disrupting fragile commercial balances.
The stated aim is to position itself to counteract the arrival of a brand new competing shopping center a few kilometers away in the municipality of Cagnes sur Mer (Polygone Riviera).
If the public interest in such an operation is not proven, at a time when local commerce in city centers is dying rapidly, as the construction of commercial spaces on the outskirts of cities upsets the commercial offering and even more today by concentrating this offer to the west of the Nice metropolis, it has a lasting impact on the site at the mouth of the Var River (St Laurent du Var), located in a protected natural area (Natura 2000) which is already subject to numerous environmental violations:
According to the association Green, an environmental non-profit organization under the 1901 law, it would be interesting to know if:
there is an impact study with environmental assessment for this shopping center extension project regarding the Natura 2000 Zone.
a serious, comprehensive, and above all transparent audit of the wastewater treatment plant is planned to truly inform the population about pollution risks (recurrent bacteriological pollution since 2012, and still today, on Green’s website, “the beaches of St Laurent du Var are again closed to swimming: Following malfunctions at the wastewater treatment plant, the NCA metropolis has been ordered to proceed with the installation of additional equipment to address the phenomena causing the most recent…
bacteriological pollutions of the bathing waters of Saint-Laurent du Var”, despite several declarations by President Estrosi claiming that the new treatment plant would solve all problems. Far from it.
increased monitoring of the protected natural area is considered for this project “for example why not a sort of ‘Guardian of the Natura 2000 Zone’ who would constantly be on-site to raise awareness and possibly prevent pollution…
The doubling of the commercial spaces, on a former marshland site (forty years old) reclaimed from the Var riverbed, even and especially protected by a dike, is not likely to combat these pollutions caused by the diversion of the riverbed; on the contrary, it might contribute to permanently altering the natural course of the river.
Sources: Emmanuelle Gaziello and Laurent Rodrigues.
