Last Thursday, Christian Estrosi signed a “protocol of intent” with Stefan Vanoverbeke, General Manager of Ikea France, for the establishment of Ikea adjacent to the Grand Football Stadium. As we reported in our articles, the feedback on this initiative has been rather favorable, even from the socialist opposition. However, as with any matter, there are dissenting voices, whether from political sources or associations. Thus, the debate is open, and those who wish to express their well-reasoned opinions will be given the opportunity.
Eco-Valley: “Showcase of sustainable development” = even more hypermarkets / Even more traffic jams…
Ikea, a “colossal project,” “unique in the world,” such exaggerated superlatives do not fit our territory enclosed between sea and mountains, whose charm and quality of life are not due to excessiveness.
Flat land suitable for construction is rare. It must be reserved for excellence.
Ikea is a pleasant brand for mass retail that should be established on the outskirts of cities. Its installation too close to city centers has a very heavy negative impact on downtown businesses, urbanism, and traffic.
Thus, the largest Ikea in France is announced on our territory. It is planned to attract customers from 150 km to the east and west, who will fill the freeway already saturated by local and international truck traffic.
1.5 million customers will add to those of Carrefour and the entire existing commercial area. It’s easy to imagine the traffic jams.
Especially since no collective transport meeting the needs is imaginable for at least 30 years.
And yet, the town hall’s site calls this “Eco-Valley” the “Green Valley…Showcase of sustainable development”!
Its location should have been envisioned in the Broc area, at the exit of the Esteron, not in Saint Isidore at the heart of the rapidly developing new city.
Its size should remain human-sized, suitable for the narrowness of our territory. It is illusory to believe in local benefits, as customers are captive of the “Ikea Village.”
How many downtown businesses will disappear, turning merchant families and their employees into job seekers? What is the opinion of the CCI?
Through the statements, one could expect more relevance for the OIN.
What will happen to the “Eco-city” label given by the State and the funding attached to it?
Jean Icart, General Counselor
Three years of reflection to arrive at this submission.
Our former Minister of Industry is currently the Minister of Commerce and Crafts.
He thinks he can tame the giant Ikea and its planned 40,000 m2 of retail space for 2016. For now, he offers it the land next to the Grand Football Stadium and the hoped-for arrival of Nice residents by tram in 2018.
One can think he believes: “I take your professional tax or what remains of it, you help me pay the Grand Stadium, and in exchange, I give you my commerce and merchants, which bring me nothing and cost me with their FISAC.”
This is what is called issuing post-dated checks. It’s also known as a headlong rush.
He is not the only one mistaken about the fragile balance of commerce. He is in the continuity of a Jacques Peyrat in 1997, a Jacques Kotler (who still fears the 40,000 m2), a Jean-Louis Scoffié, a Richard Galy in Mougins (who granted Ikea 17,000 m2 in 2005), and the current head of CCI 06: Bernard Kleynhoff (following in the line of his predecessors).
Ikea announces 350 “employees” for Nice. But how many merchants will lower their blinds?
Then Ikea talks of indirect jobs…! Because in traditional commerce and with our SMEs-SMIs, there are no indirect jobs?
Journalist Grégory Leclerc dares the question: “Ikea, it’s not really ‘made in France’.”
Response from our field-elected official: “What matters is supporting employment… and meeting consumer expectations…”
I fear that with such demagoguery, soon we will have neither jobs nor consumers.
And I was told…: To govern is to foresee. Foreseeing surely doesn’t have the same meaning in everyone’s mouth.
We will have to know how to distinguish, when necessary, those who foresee the headlong rush for the renewal of their mandate from those who foresee the future of their country.
As we knew how to fight against a dangerous tunnel, let’s quickly create a Collective for the survival of local commerce, national industry, and for balancing the nation’s accounts.
Christian Razeau, association For Nice
The announcement of the establishment of an Ikea store to the west of our city, presented by the Mayor of Nice as excellent news, is actually yet another proof of his lack of understanding of the issues at hand.
The Plaine du Var was recognized by the Villepin Government, at the initiative of the previous municipality, as a “National Interest Operation.” It is unfortunate for Nice and the people of Nice that Mr. Estrosi sees in this designation only another tool for his personal and extravagant communication, without value or consequence.
Yet it is on this land reserve, served by the highway, the airport, the train – except for the TGV – and, if the Métropole is not ruined by then, structured by the Line 3 of the Tramway (following the ever-awaited Line 2 East-West), that the economic future of Nice lies.
It is here that we should welcome innovative companies, the jewels of research, technology, and industry of the 21st century. They alone will be able, in the future, to provide wealth, jobs, and perspectives for our territory. However, to my knowledge, neither Ikea nor the pool promised to the excellent ONN club are among these structures of excellence.
By choosing to pursue such projects, the Mayor deliberately condemns the available spaces in the west of our municipality to become a kind of compromise between the tomb of cumbersome municipal projects and the suburban commercial zone of a sub-prefecture. What amateurism, right where it is needed most, the general interest demands actual coherence in land planning!
On this issue, as on so many others, no matter his posturing, Christian Estrosi demonstrates, if it were still necessary, that winning municipal elections is insufficient to be a Mayor…
Gaël NOFRI, President of Nice Génération Espoir
This project emerged suddenly given that it complements the PIA Grand Stadium: we would like to know how the consultation with the population was conducted.
We doubt that the inhabitants of Saint Isidore have given a favorable opinion because, having spoken with farmers from Saint Isidore, they do not want their village to become a densely urbanized area.
Mr. Estrosi boasts of having kept his commitments by creating jobs: are the current jobs at the Grand Stadium stable and sustainable?
Allowing everyone to access housing: how is it that currently there are (source INSEE) nearly 30,000 vacant housing units throughout the ex-Nice Côte d’Azur area, including a good portion of public housing, and that at the same time, French families are being evicted while they are DALO and the city can support them?
Leading an attractiveness policy (Mr. Estrosi talks of sustainable development and tourism) why not provide the many young people requesting it with cultivable land in this loamy plain, which would be a source of non-relocatable jobs for projects that do not respect classified areas, and the General Council hesitates to classify certain Natura 2000 zones as required by European legislation?
We wonder in what way urbanizing 8 hectares on inhabited areas without even consulting the population and boasting of offering IKEA a real estate gift respects the population and the resources of this plain.
We remind that for us, respecting people and the resources in water, biodiversity, and agriculture is essential, and we will not compromise on this point.
For where is the impact on the aquifer, the lands, and the village of Saint Isidore indicated?.
Nadège Bonfils
Spokesperson for the Collectif OIN Plaine du Var
