"Zero net artificialisation": the government for a minimum artificialisation envelope of 1%

A senators' bill aimed at facilitating the implementation of the objectives of "zero net artificialisation" (ZAN) of soils in 2050, set by the "Climate and Resilience" law of 2021, will be discussed from Tuesday.

Soil artificialization consists of transforming agricultural or natural soil into an impermeable zone for building housing or an urban area.

Among the senators' proposals is the establishment of a "guarantee" for each municipality so that the implementation of the ZAN "does not result in a total absence of rights to build or in a freeze on its development".

Concretely, each municipality would be guaranteed a minimum envelope of rights "of at least 1 hectare", considered by the senators as a "strong guarantee for municipalities that have consumed very little land in recent periods, in particular small municipalities. and rural communities".

In a bill tabled in mid-February also aimed at supporting local elected officials in the implementation of the ZAN, the Renaissance deputies provide for a "rural guarantee" defined as "a minimum envelope of artificialization for each low-density rural municipality ( ...) as defined by INSEE", and provided with an urban planning document at the intermunicipal level. This envelope would be equivalent to "1% of the urbanized surface of the municipality".

"The Senate bill says (...) 1 hectare for all the municipalities, this means that it immediately takes 36.000 hectares out of approximately 36.000 municipalities", indicated Monday the entourage of the Minister of Transition ecological Christophe Béchu, the proposal of the deputies being equivalent to approximately 20.000 hectares.

"We want a system that is really (...) for rural municipalities and that it is (...) proportional to the size of the municipalities", we added from the same source, specifying that the objective was to achieve "to converge the texts of the Senate and the Assembly".

On the subject of "major projects of national scope" (LGV, highways, prisons, etc.), the Senate also provides for a breakdown in a separate envelope, so that their impact in terms of artificialization "is not attributed to the region that hosts [them]. "It seems important to us that they are taken into account and distributed between the different regions", indicated for his part the entourage of the minister.