ZAC Bercy-Charenton and its six skyscrapers just approved at the Paris Council

Six skyscrapers, 9,000 inhabitants, 13,000 jobs, a 2-hectare garden … The main development operation of the next ten years in Paris is launched. The Paris Council voted Monday, July 2, the creation of the Concerted Development Area (ZAC) Bercy-Charenton, in the 12 ^e arrondissement. A green light narrowly won, after a heated debate and at the cost of a fracturing of the municipal majority. Ecologists, allies of the mayor (PS) of Paris Anne Hidalgo, voted against, as were the elected representatives of the Right and La France insoumise (LFI). The project was only approved by five votes, thanks to the support of elected Macronists and Communists.

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Won largely on SNCF train waste land stuck between the ring road and the A4 motorway interchange, the ZAC extends over 80 hectares; Only 18 hectares are really suitable for conversion, but it remains one of the last major landholdings in the capital.

The operation, designed by the British architect Richard Rogers, is all the more ambitious as it is extended by a development similar to 12 hectares in Charenton-le-Pont (Val-de-Marne), overlooked by a tower of 190 meters: the whole ambition to create over a million square meters the first truly metropolitan area of ​​Greater Paris, erasing the border of device with great reinforcement of fresh concrete.

"Delicate town planning"

If the mayor of Paris boasted a "delicate urbanism" and wanted to see in this vote a "new proof of our ability to innovate for the attractiveness of Paris and improving the living environment of Parisians ", the opponents took turns to pound the " overdensification and concreteization " to come in a district lacking transport. "Paris suffocates, full like an egg", plagued David Belliard, president of the group ecologist, while Republicans denounced "an urbanism of another time" . Danielle Simonnet (LFI) blasted Anne Hidalgo's "megalo-urban vision" when Yann Wehrling (UDI-Modem) discerned "something phallic in this race for the tower" .

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The deputy mayor of Paris in charge of town planning, Jean-Louis Missika, was able to retort that "on Bercy-Charenton, there will be 11 000 inhabitants per km ² ] half the Paris average ", the return of the towers in Paris remains a flammable subject. The 160 meters of the new courthouse designed as a building "ecological" by the architect Renzo Piano, in the 17 ^e district, have obviously not converted the enemies of the towers to the virtues of the great height. They point out that skyscrapers are financial gulfs and energy-consuming monsters, not very compatible with the capital's climate plan.

Creation of 10,000 dwellings each year

But after decades of glaciation, the team of Anne Hidalgo wants to finish with the taboo of the towers, and to erect them "like the signal of new centralities", indicates Jean-Louis Missika. In total, no less than a dozen high-rise buildings, housing offices but also housing, are under construction or programmed in the capital. A bouquet of towers should emphasize the entrance to Paris. In addition to the six skyscrapers of Bercy, storied from 85 meters to 180 meters high, the site of the Duo towers (180 and 122 meters), designed by Jean Nouvel, began on the opposite bank. In this area of ​​the Ivry Gate, where the 50-meter buildings have already begun to multiply, breaking with the Haussmanian 37-meter jig, the City has initiated a consultation for projects including new skyscrapers. [19659006] Beyond the urban signal, height has other virtues: high-rise buildings are a means for the City of Paris to meet its goal of creating 10,000 homes each year, two-thirds of which are social housing units. And stacking the floors – and the square meters sold – is a sine qua non to balance these development operations, on a land sold at a high price by the SNCF … With six-storey buildings, the economic equation would be untenable, badures the City, except to build any parcel, to the detriment of parks and public spaces.

After the vote on Monday, the excavators are not yet close to arrive at Bercy-Charenton. Remedies can still be brought against the creation of the ZAC, then against the building permits to come. In 15 ^e arrondissement, the construction site of the Triangle Tower has been blocked for more than three years.