Considered at first reading for more than two weeks, the bill plans to halve over the next ten years the artificialization of soils compared to the previous decade, and to "reach" in 2050 the objective of zero artificialization. clear.
"This is the first time that we have fully recognized the value of soils in ecological terms, for carbon capture, for biodiversity, for water, for nature, for all of us in general. For the first time, we let's move from the notion of land sobriety, to consume less, to a notion of global balance, to move towards zero net artificialization, not to artificialize more than what we can ", praised the Minister for Housing Emmanuelle Wargon.
This fight against artificialization will be applied to regional planning documents, before updating urban planning documents at the municipal or inter-municipal level. The Communists criticized a provision "detrimental to the free administration of communities", the LR deputies a "rigidity".
To reassure elected officials, the deputies had already in committee extended the deadlines for this local update, five to six years after the promulgation of the law.
In the hemicycle, an additional lengthening was refused to the right and the left. Also supported by some elected members of the majority, various relaxations to the new rules were also rejected, among the some 300 amendments to article 49 in question - a record in this bill.
On the proposal of the co-rapporteur Lionel Causse (LREM), the deputies however specified that the territorial variation will take into account the "reduction in consumption" of spaces already achieved, of "the land potential that can be mobilized in already urbanized spaces", and even "of needs linked to demographic and economic developments ".
The tone rose when the boss of PCF deputies André Chassaigne denounced a fight against artificialization which will "primarily benefit large metropolises, to the detriment of rural territories" which will be held back in "any resumption of vitality" according to him.
All the oppositions rushed into the breach, deploring the absence of a "development plan" in this text (UDI) or asking what future is given to rural territories (LR). "We do not have the keys to distribution" of the efforts, also pointed out the former Minister of Housing Sylvia Pinel (Freedoms and territories).
"It's been forty years that we have metropolitanization and urban sprawl. It is not this law that creates the problem, it can provide a solution," replied Ms. Wargon. She added that "the specific issues of municipalities classified as rural revitalization zones" will be taken into account.
And article 49 was validated by 75 votes against 13. The debates will continue Thursday at the end of the day in particular on the prohibition of the creation or the extension of large commercial surfaces causing an artificialization of the grounds.