In Rennes, welcoming more inhabitants is a balancing act

"It's not New York here!", "No to the infernal tower!". At the entrance to Rennes, a dozen banners hung on the facades of small houses express the exasperation of the inhabitants at the arrival of a 17-storey tower.

"Welcoming people, we have nothing against it, what bothers us is the height, we are no longer reasonable", worries Benjamin Hubert, member of the collective "L'Enchanteur désenchanté".

Further east, another collective, "See the sky in Rennes", is trying to "bring down" a 15-storey building project. "We build what we want where we want without consultation, as in the 1960s. People are terrified by so much concrete, with houses falling like hotcakes", gets carried away Philippe, resident.

Some also complain about traffic jams. "I no longer recognize the city on a human scale where I was born. There is no longer fluidity in transport, and tensions are rising between the inhabitants", judge Françoise, 44, member of the Coudurr collective (collective united for rational urban densification in Rennes). He calls for a break from projects "disfiguring neighborhoods" and a public debate on the "mad growth of the metropolis".

According to INSEE, the Rennes metropolis has been experiencing "strong demographic growth" for 30 years, and should have 100.000 additional inhabitants in 2040. Faced with these forecasts and the 22.000 requests for social housing pending, the metropolis is planning 30.000 new housing units. here 2028.

"The real question is not to say + we need 30.000 housing units + but to know how far we can densify a city without making it impossible to live in", questions Jean-Pierre Renault, president of the association "Les amis du Rennes heritage".

Trauma

"Rennes is also the life of its neighborhoods with a large residential fabric, where a certain nonchalance reigns. But when the city is building on itself at full speed, you can make mistakes and not always respect harmony with the environment", continues this architect, who fears a "monotony of the templates of buildings" and a "loss of bearings" of the inhabitants.

According to Alain Bénesteau, director of Audiar, the Rennes urban planning agency, the Rennes conurbation remains half as dense as its Nantes cousin. "The phenomenon of cohabitation, with separations and the departure of students from the parental home, but also the aging of the population, mean that we need more housing with an equal population", he explains.

Added to this are dynamic demography and a positive migratory balance due to the attractiveness of the city, which combines low unemployment and proximity to the coast and Paris thanks to the TGV.

"Out of 5.000 new annual inhabitants, 2.800 come from the natural balance", insists Marc Hervé, first deputy PS for town planning, recalling that the densification concerns "a marginal surface, but very visible because on the main axes".

"It is first of all the Rennais who must be housed, because the Ile-de-France residents only represent 10% of real estate transactions", assures the elected official. He recognizes that the vertical development of the city "can constitute a trauma".

In order to improve consultation, a charter now encourages developers to inform the population before submitting the building permit.

"We are trying to satisfy some of the demands", assures Marc Hervé.

Faced with the rise in property prices in Rennes - +11% in one year in the old - however, there is no question of stopping building. "Everyone must be able to find housing, especially low-income people, because we need all the trades", warns Jean-Yves Chapuis, former town planning assistant.

For Ana Sohier, ex-elected UDB (Breton Democratic Union, autonomists) for heritage, "we must re-examine the concept of metropolises".

"We concentrate, then we complain about the densification. Today the question arises of better distributing economic activity to better distribute the inhabitants", she argues.