Let’s first recall that following a public market tender, the urban planning company Es Pace Urbanisme et Architecture, based in Nice, has been tasked since October 4, 2014, by the APIJ (Public Agency for Justice Real Estate) to identify suitable sites for the construction of a new penitentiary.
The criteria are multiple: a flat land of 10 to 15 hectares, in a low-density residential area, preferably in an agricultural zone, near major roads and less than thirty minutes from the Nice Court of First Instance.
As Philippe Hiller, president of the Clé des Champs association, which opposes the in-situ renovation project of the prison, aptly puts it: “The establishment of a new penitentiary within the Nice Côte d’Azur metropolis is also part of the guidelines set by the state within the framework of developing the future metropolitan Local Urban Plan (PLU) scheduled for early 2019. Indeed, as provided by law, the Prefect of the Alpes Maritimes sent a document entitled ‘porter à la connaissance’ to the President of the metropolis on July 3, 2015. This 29-page document includes a number of recommendations and useful information to be considered for the development of the PLUM. Under Title VI – Useful Information and the ‘Major Equipment and Infrastructure Projects’ section, page 26 contains the following information: ‘Given the obsolescence and security level of the current establishment, studies are underway to determine a site capable of hosting a new detention center.’”
This approach is therefore well entrenched in a metropolitan framework, and the President of the Metropolis is necessarily aware of it. However, the story, although it began a long time ago, is far from over.
This Friday at the Metropolitan Council, President Christian Estrosi clearly positioned himself against the Minister of Justice Jean-Jacques Urvoas.
The object of this statement? “The government has asked the Metropolis to reserve a 10-hectare site in the PLU for a penitentiary facility,” whose construction and management, however, fall under the State’s responsibility.
For Christian Estrosi, things are clear: “We do not have to accept an injunction in a field of competence that is not ours.” He considers this request as “an encroachment of the State on the management of territorial communities.”
Why? “The State owns 450 hectares in the Nice area. Let it make proposals on those lands, and then we’ll see if there’s a need to adapt our PLU.”
Behind the grand principles, there are interests, as the site in the Iscles neighborhood, in Saint-Laurent-du-Var, seems to have the Ministry’s preference, the President of the Metropolis is against it as he wants to pursue other objectives in this same area.
To inevitably return to the core of the problem: if he wants to renovate the Nice penitentiary establishment, why does the Minister of Justice want to do things differently? Is it not the ministry that pays for the construction and manages it?
The traditional Niçoise exception…
