Repairing “ugly France”, a new challenge for public policies

In September, the government launched an experiment aimed at transforming this peri-urban France with its flashy advertising billboards, described as "ugly" by Télérama in 2010, but which concentrates 72% of French spending in stores.

Due to climate change, the asphalt layers of parking lots and "shoe boxes" no longer have good press at a time of the fight against thermal sieves, the artificialization of soils and carbon-based mobility.

“In a world which is becoming aware of its limits, the commercial zone has reached its limits”, summarized the Minister Delegate for Trade, Olivia Grégoire, announcing a budget of 24 million euros to “reinvent” these zones which remained “the unthought of public policies".

Since then, more than a hundred applications have been submitted for the approximately 1.500 commercial zones identified. The government must soon announce around twenty winners.

Each project will benefit from 150.000 euros to finance preliminary studies and project management assistance.

“At the start we had shopping centers,” rewinds Christine Leconte, president of the Order of French Architects. “Then ready-to-wear, household appliances, cinemas, sports halls and restaurants came together to create a city of consumption, a franchise city whose territory was sold to the private sector.”

"New model"

Today, according to her, it is a question of "repairing these poorly designed spaces" to "bring the city to where there is none", that is to say "streets, squares, places to walk, public facilities and housing.

Three profiles are identified. Firstly, dynamic commercial zones close to metropolises, where the objective is to increase the height of buildings and introduce housing, offices and nature.

In the 10% of areas in decline, the challenge is on the contrary to group or eliminate stores, and to renature or reconvert wastelands.

Finally, in rural areas, it will also be a question of "rationalizing stores" but this time to establish industry, when possible.

The race for square meters is over, especially since the profitability of these areas has stopped increasing with competition from e-commerce.

“It is a relevant reading of the making of the city to want to go beyond the mono-functionality of zones dedicated exclusively to commerce,” observes Arnaud Gasnier, professor of planning and town planning at the University of Le Mans.

In any case, the objective of zero net artificialization (ZAN) of soils requires elected officials to compensate for any new artificialized square meter with a renatured square meter from 2050.

“We will inevitably run out of land. We will have to create new urban models, undoubtedly more vertical,” adds Mr. Gasnier.

However, nothing is planned to "preserve the advertising landscape", regrets Benjamin Badouard, elected environmentalist in the metropolis of Lyon, who wants to reduce the role of advertising by 60% to 90% by 2026.

"Sociability"

This so-called “ugly” France does not, however, only have detractors.

Author of a response to the judgment rendered by Télérama, anthropologist Eric Chauvier fears that we are "underestimating the sociability value of city entrances, even ecologically aberrant ones".

“For many working classes, a GiFi store gives the impression of purchasing power, of existence through the act of purchasing, and therefore of self-esteem,” he argues.

Fabrice Raffin, lecturer at the University of Picardy and researcher at the Habiter le Monde laboratory, believes that these "often criticized urban forms are not only appreciated" but even "popular, especially by families, by young people", analyzes he says on the website “The Conversation”.

He sees it as a support for “their daily life, their leisure activities”, a “benchmark for their identity” but also a “Hollywood aesthetic”.

In Seine-et-Marne, Marlène Mouketo goes every three weeks to the concerted development zone (ZAC) of Meaux for "the clothing and trinket stores", and sometimes "McDo" .

“There is a lack in the city center. All the stores have gone, there is not much left inside,” regrets the fifty-year-old, who finds these ZACs “very practical”. “It may not be good for the fields, it’s not eco-friendly, but it’s good for us,” she pleads.

In Vesoul, which is working to "revitalize" its city center thanks to the government program "Action coeur de ville", mayor Alain Chrétien (Horizons) fears a boomerang effect.

“As credits are limited, we do not want money to be taken from +Action heart of town+ to renovate commercial areas,” he underlines.

difficulties

“Making the outskirts more pleasant to live in actually weakens city centers,” warns Nicolas Lebrun, lecturer at the University of Artois. “Greening a car park while remaining in a place chosen for its automobile accessibility is not tackling an environmental problem, it is practicing +greenwashing+”, tackles the geographer.

“Is it up to the State to finance the reconversion of wasteland due to a disposable urban planning practice?” he asks again.

For Clément Baylac, of Intercommunalités de France, public money must first finance "complex and costly" operations, such as transforming commercial space into industrial space, which France lacks. But "we are not going to revolutionize the French commercial framework with 24 million euros", he assures.

Michel Jacod, member of the France nature environment association, says he is "favorable" to the initiative but considers it difficult to install "industry at the entrance to a city or housing without public transport".

As for renaturation, “it would be really good but it is very difficult in the short term because the soils are ruined by thirty years of parking,” he notes.

And remember that “logistics warehouses of more than 10.000 m2 are not prohibited, unlike shopping centers”.

According to architect Christine Leconte, one of the biggest obstacles will undoubtedly be "the conflict between privately owned commercial land and the public interest in the making of the city" while it is important, according to her, that 'a city "can remain public to guarantee a right to the city".