Yes to an “Eco” valley, No to a national Operation that boils down to 4 development projects, no matter how HQE they may be! No to a national Operation where partners and citizens are deprived of debate!
1/ For an eco-valley built through true partnership: with the Region and above all with the citizens!
The Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur Region is one of the main partners of the Public Establishment for the Development of the Var Plain since, to date and since 2008, it contributes financially to the extent of 15% of the funding needs of the development operation, which amounts to around €600k per year for the Region.
During its next plenary session, on February 17, the territorial project of the OIN and a financial protocol aiming to engage the partner communities of the EPA for the next 15 years, will be submitted to the vote of the regional councilors.
The Region, a partner which, whether Mr. Estrosi likes it or not, has a right to speak!
The financial protocol provides for the amount of the annual payment over the first 15 years (more than €10 million in total, including €1,299 at the expense of the PACA Region) which mainly corresponds to the realization of the 4 development projects: Grand Arenas-Multimodal Hub, Nice-Méridia, La Baronne-Lingostière, and Saint-Martin du Var. This is the heart of the territorial project as summed up by the numbers.
The protocol in fact only concerns square meters of floor area: 680,000 m2 over 4 development projects including 370,000 m2 of business district while the country sinks into recession, and thousands of square meters remain unoccupied.
This protocol commits the 5 partners for 15 years. Do they not deserve to be considered?
On December 19, 2011, it was voted by the community council and the file had only been provided to the councilors at the start of the meeting…
In the EPA Board of Directors, regional elected officials were assaulted by Mr. Estrosi and threatened by the Prefect of the Alpes-Maritimes with the Region being replaced by another institution as a partner of the EPA if the regional councilors did not vote for the protocol.
The city of Nice voted for the protocol on December 22. In both cases, the State required the protocol to be accompanied by the territorial project so that the elected representatives could vote with full knowledge, which was not the case.
Even today, the EPA shows how disinterested it is in its regional partner by canceling the meeting scheduled today between President Christian Tordo and the 8 regional elected officials coming to meet him.
No OIN without public debate
Once again, it is unacceptable that this territorial project emerges following a sham of public consultation that simply did not address the development operations but rather grand principles for the next 30 years!
The regional councilors have spoken on this subject many times and have requested a public debate that the National Commission for Public Debate has refused due to regulations on the OIN. However, the CNDP has seized the Minister of Ecology on the interest of such a debate. “It would be moreover relevant, within the framework of the draft decree in preparation, for national interest operations (Saclay, Plaine du Var) to be listed among the plans and programs likely to be subject to a public debate in application of the provisions of article L. 121-10 of the environmental code.” (Decision communiqué from CNDP of December 7, 2011)
Relying on this door opened by the CNDP, we will continue to demand a public debate and will support the initiatives of the OIN Collectives in this regard.
2/ What kind of OIN do we want?
Yes, it is necessary to redevelop the Var Plain to give it new coherence and dynamism. This dynamism could have been that of a true eco-valley in the sense of:
- reconciling the economy and ecology in this plain, as in accompanying and implementing the industrial ecology project carried by the territory’s businesses;
emphasizing the systematic creation of energy production through biomass, individual wind turbines, solar, geothermal;
urgently defining immovable agricultural spaces and not compromising on cultivable areas. Agricultural spaces that are not merely symbolic to supply the Azuréens with quality, local products.
(The project indeed admits that while 435 ha were farmed in the plain in 1990, only 210 remain, and what is very serious, they are scattered across the territory. The same phenomenon is occurring on the hillsides.)
Behind Objective 5 of the territorial project: “The creation of a new urbanism model in which AGRICULTURE has its full place within a mesh with built and natural spaces on both banks of the river.”, the territorial project simply does not address the subject and refers it to a working group.
- refocusing the project on local development and not betting everything on an international positioning;
developing by restoring ecological continuities as revealed in the study commissioned by the EPA on this subject;
yes to a real consideration of the torrential nature of this Mediterranean river: fewer dikes that corset the water flow, more permeable spreading areas in the minor bed, agricultural for instance, at all costs preserving the wooded slopes, etc..
planning connections with the Provence Railways by valuing related economic activities…
yes finally to a global and collective reflection within the framework of a public debate with all the territory’s stakeholders, in transparency and democracy.
Yes, it seems just and reasonable to us to make another path heard, which is not that of systematic opposition but that of proposing to meet the objectives set in the initial project of the “Eco-Valley” Operation.
