Candidate for state funding via the recovery plan, this urban revegetation project, very fashionable in times of global warming, has taken a first step with the closing of the call for tenders for consulting firms. landscape architects. The winner will be chosen in the last quarter from among five pre-selected.
Cost of the works: 75,6 million euros, according to the amount given as an indication by the call for tenders which includes several operations to extend over eight hectares the "Promenade du Paillon", name of the existing green corridor, inaugurated in 2013 by M. Estrosi and acclaimed by the people of Nice.
The mayor on the right created a surprise by announcing this project in January 2020, at the start of the campaign leading to his re-election. In France, several ecological municipalities have launched revegetation programs but favoring "mini-forests".
In Nice, the project is criticized by the opposition. The National Gathering denounced the "repetitive and massive work" that it would entail after the costly construction site just completed at the end of 2019 of the new tram line.
The left, now without elected to the city council, accused Mr. Estrosi of being interested "only in the facade of the city and to move the concrete to the west".
"Your pharaonic projects were already questionable before the (health) crisis, now while our city is in despair, they are no longer acceptable! They put us in debt over decades and contribute to climate change", launched the elected member of Europe Ecology the Greens in the municipal council, Juliette Chesnel-Leroux.
Vigilance
"It's very good to plant trees, it refreshes cities, it reduces pollution. Except that we will have to be very vigilant", in particular on the choice of species, warns the geographer Philippe Rossello, member of the Regional Group of experts on the climate in the South Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur (Grec-Sud) region.
"If the drought in summer worsens with climate change, unless there is massive watering, the evapo-transpiration of the trees will be low and so will the cooling," he warns.
Along the Old Nice and built on a slab enclosing the Paillon river, the Promenade du Paillon allows you to stroll from the sea to the National Theater of Nice (TNN). It offers a tree-lined counterpart to the Promenade des Anglais along the Mediterranean.
The extension of this green space must "offer a qualitative and peaceful living space with less noise pollution, less pollution, the erasure of equipment that has become inappropriate because of their visual impact and their positioning - national theater and palace congresses - and restored facades ", underlines the town hall.
Mr. Estrosi had initially announced the demolition of two hotels, not warned of the project, which ultimately "will do everything to integrate into the new landscape", told AFP Pierre Messe, director of the Novotel.
The TNN building dating from 1989 will be demolished "at the start of 2022", then in "December 2022" the Acropolis Convention Center, 38.000 m2 renovated ten years ago for a capacity of 6.000 delegates. The latter will be rebuilt at the entrance to the city near the airport. The central library and parking will be maintained under the garden, along with the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (Mamac).
"Things are rushing", confirms the TNN to AFP, supporting the project and having to prepare two seasons "outside the walls".
The Theater will recover a small room in a former convent under renovation in Old Nice where the work delayed by the Covid-19 must be completed by January-February 2022. For the large room, the deadline is later, 2024/2025 .
In Paris, the short-lived En Marche candidate Benjamin Griveaux had made a similar proposal to create a "Parisian Central Park" and "plant a forest" by dynamiting the Gare de l'Est, with an invoice of 1,5 billion euros. euros at stake. The reelected PS town hall prefers to increase the number of urban mini-forests.