Housing: Senate votes on multiple measures to simplify urban planning rules

Already adopted in mid-May by the National Assembly, the text by MP Harold Huwart (independent Liot group) was widely supported by senators by a show of hands, despite opposition and abstentions on the left.

While the Senate majority, a right-wing-centrist alliance, mobilized to adopt this text supported by the government, the entire chamber expressed serious reservations about the scope of the text, with many voices calling for a much more comprehensive "programmatic bill" on housing, a recurring demand for several years in Parliament.

But "a small step is better than no step at all," noted Les Républicains Senator Sylviane Noël, rapporteur on this text.

The highly technical text voted on Tuesday attacks several sections of urban planning regulations in an attempt to remove certain barriers to construction, based on the principle that this could address a worrying trend: the drop of around 20% in the number of authorized housing units compared to pre-Covid figures.

The measures will "result in more transparent rules, more accessible law, and a reduction in administrative and procedural constraints," welcomed Housing Minister Valérie Létard.

Among the key measures passed was the extension of exemptions to local urban planning schemes (PLUs) to allow the construction of affordable housing on a case-by-case basis. Initially envisioned only for areas with "high housing demand," these exemptions were extended by the Senate to all municipalities. The upper house also requested that they be granted only with the approval of the mayor of the municipality in question.

Other simplifications adopted by the Senate: the relaxation of constraints on the "solarization" of non-residential buildings and parking lots, or the simplification of procedures for the "change of purpose" of agricultural or forestry buildings to facilitate their change of use.

Or the possibility of reducing, by way of derogation, the percentage of places reserved for the most vulnerable groups in the next social housing residences, to house employees there instead. Here again, the Senate has chosen to extend these derogations, initially limited to occasional needs, despite the anger of the left, which deplored "environmental setbacks."

"We are running the risk of institutionalizing temporary relief, exposing the most vulnerable to lasting residential instability," worried environmentalist Yannick Jadot.

MPs and senators will now attempt to agree on a common version of the text during a joint committee meeting scheduled for July 3.