Citizen participation at the heart of the design of the Étoile eco-district

Annemasse Agglo also wanted to make it an example of shared design to create a feeling of belonging to the territory for all future residents and users. In this spirit, an ambitious approach to citizen participation has been put in place through regular meetings on the ground to bring out and make these new ways of living well in the city a reality.

Bringing citizens together around the eco-district

To support the next stages of the district until its finalization, Annemasse Agglo and the developer UrbanEra have created a citizen participation body: the Project Forum. Bringing together local stakeholders from the economic, social and solidarity sectors as well as residents and local residents, the Forum aims to lead discussions on the urban project. Several meetings have already been organized through AGORAS and FOCUS.

Led by the use management agency Réciprocité, the AGORAS bring together a panel of around thirty people made up of local residents and residents of the eco-district, local stakeholders and even housing stakeholders. AGORAS members monitor the progress of the project and meet two to three times a year to work on specific sectors or themes of the EcoQuartier. Their shared points of view will enrich the reflections to bring the urban project to life. On Saturday January 21, 2023, the first AGORA marked the launch of this citizen participation process. At the end of initial discussions and a presentation of the approach, the participants went to the Rotonde space accompanied by the architect-urban planner of l'Étoile, Benoît Billy (Devillers & Associés) to make a initial diagnosis, identify needs and imagine future uses of this public space. The next AGORA is scheduled for June 17.

FOCUS are consultation times allowing work on a particular space, such as a park or a public square. The Focus will therefore more directly address local residents and direct users of the area studied. These moments of exchange make it possible to integrate the prescriptions, needs and ideas of residents and local residents into the design of future public spaces, but also to forge links between this new district, existing cities and their users. The first workshop organized on February 1 focused on the co-design of the future play area of ​​the Jardin Ferroviaire, located in the town of Ambilly. The second Focus on the redevelopment of the Martin Luther King square in Annemasse took place in two stages, on March 15 and April 19.

A word from Denis Maire, mayor of Juvigny, vice-president in charge of regional planning and territorial innovation at Annemasse Agglo

Citizen participation: what is at stake for Annemasse Agglo for the Étoile eco-district?

Annemasse Agglo is an EPCI (Public Establishment for Intercommunal Cooperation) which is very young since it was born in 2008. Due to our young existence, we constitute ourselves at the territorial level by giving a certain human consistency to this living area. The eco-neighborhood is not a neighborhood that we transform but a blank slate that we build. In fact, there are not yet many residents in place today or local residents directly impacted. With this project, we are truly working on the layout and animation of new living spaces, whether they have already been delivered or are still in the study phase.

Did you draw on the example of other cities to design this citizen approach?

There are few experiences of this type around us apart from local development councils. However, one thing must be taken into account: the Zac Étoile touches the territory of the canton of Geneva. We are thus inspired by the metropolitan heart of the city of Geneva. Even if everything does not coincide in terms of culture, we look at Switzerland to see how they organize the fabric of their neighborhoods and how they involve residents in the implementation of citizen initiatives. For example, today we are carrying out a participatory housing and cooperative housing project called Coop Étoile. This project, which has existed for 6 years, is strongly inspired by what is happening and what is being done in Switzerland.

Do you participate as an elected official in these bodies?

We are attending but for a specific time because as elected officials we do not wish to interfere in what is going to be built. Indeed, we have already participated a lot in this project and we do not want to interfere with the expression of citizens and more broadly the expression of the territory. So, during the first Agora which was held last January, we did not stay for the entire workshop. I know that this first meeting was rather productive and that a diversity of profiles of local stakeholders were present such as traders, representatives of social landlords and local residents. This diversity of profiles is our first satisfaction to the extent that we manage to bring all these key players into dialogue together.

A word from Agnès Roux, project director at UrbanEra, the urban developer of Bouygues Immobilier, project owner of the Étoile eco-district

Why did you establish a citizen participation body dedicated to the Etoile eco-district?

We wanted to involve the public who are in demand and who wish to participate more directly in the creation of their environment and more broadly their city. In addition, there was at UrbanEra a desire to rework the design of a project and even during its implementation, to see if any elements needed to be rethought, improved, redone. With this in mind, at the will of the elected representatives of Annemasse Agglo and the municipalities, we proposed to create a project forum with several bodies to test this citizen participation. The idea is to say that from these exchanges initiatives can emerge that we would not have thought of, and which meet the needs and expectations of future residents and users of the neighborhood. The aim of this is to identify aspects of projects, which although advanced, can be re-examined and developed.

Is this type of approach common at UrbanEra?

At UrbanEra, we create new neighborhoods taking into account what already exists and we are convinced that the city of tomorrow is designed with future residents and users. At all stages of projects, we involve the public to inform or consult them through regular meetings, particularly within the framework of information meetings, site visits or participatory workshops. In the Étoile eco-district, this approach is particularly advanced since we invite people to co-design public spaces in the district: their layouts, their atmospheres and even their uses. As a developer, these bodies allow us to nourish our thinking on the urban project to best meet the expectations and needs of future residents and users.

Will these authorities be applied to the tertiary offer in the eco-district?

Today we are addressing future users and workers. To the extent that they will use the neighborhood, we are very interested in their different ideas on how to move, consume, have fun, and rest. We already have a few players who occupy commercial ground floors and who are present at the various consultation moments that we organize.

A word from Benoit Billy, architect-urban planner at D&A – Devillers & Associés