By
Editorial Hauts-de-Seine
Published on
May 23, 2024 at 6:02 a.m.
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There administrative court of appeal of Versailles finally authorized the prefect of Hauts-de-Seine to “regularize” the declaration of public utility (DUP) of the T10 tramway project between the municipalities of Antony and Clamart, to the great dismay of two defense associations of the environment and of owners who are going to be expropriated.
No measure to “compensate for the negative effects of the project”
On October 11, 2016, the State representative declared the 8.2 km line project with 14 stations “of public utility”, opening the way to the expropriation of owners impacted by this new equipment. Seized of the appeal of Sud Environnement and the Association Châtenay Patrimoine Environnement (ACPE) and the real estate company (SCI) Henrica, the administrative court of Cergy-Pontoise finally annulled this decision on July 20, 2021.
He notably estimated that the department, the State and Île-de-France Mobilités (IDFM) had not taken any measures to “compensate for the significant negative effects of the project on the environment or human health”, and that the “ economic and environmental disadvantages” of this tram line exceeded its “interest”.
The project leaders were particularly criticized for not having extended their “impact study” to the extension of this tram line to the north, up to the future metro line 15 of the Grand Paris Express. They had therefore appealed in view of the “substantial sums already committed” in this project “the completion of which is very advanced”, as IDFM underlined.
A “need for significant access and access”
According to them, the administrative court had “completely ignored the numerous environmental and human benefits” of this tram line. But also the “ compensatory measures particularly ambitious” planned to compensate for damage to protected species in the forests of Meudon and Verrières. While 4.2 hectares will be cleared – including 3.5 for the Maintenance and Storage Site (SMR) – IDFM was forced to carry out “forest compensation of 16.94 hectares” on other sites.
“The benefits of the project were eluded or too strongly put into perspective,” IDFM also regretted. THE need for access and access is important on the route, which is located in a particularly dense area [174 000 habitants] experiencing strong urban dynamism with numerous business parks. THE number of jobs increased by 19% between 1999 and 2000, and the dynamic should continue with a significant intensification by 2030 of the Plessis-Robinson and Châtenay-Malabry employment areas. »
In a judgment dated March 25, 2024, which has just been made public, the Versailles Administrative Court of Appeal begins immediately by saying that nothing demonstrates that the T10 “could not be designed and launched autonomously » of its hypothetical extension to metro line 15. A “global” impact study was therefore not necessary.
An “unmaintained” and “unused” forest for the court of appeal
The site chosen for the maintenance of the tram trains on the edge of the Verrières woods was also “the most relevant”: it was chosen “among 12 other possible sites” and “in a context of land scarcity”, recall the Versailles judges. . “The clearing of this 3.5 ha wooded plot, compared to the 576 hectares of this unmaintained forest (…) since the 1999 storm and little frequented by the public due to its location, will have a low impact on the level of protected species,” they are convinced.
Above all, this tram line “responds to the growing need for travel from suburb to suburb (..), underlines the administrative court of appeal of Versailles. It makes it possible to serve landlocked areas, notably several districts of Châtenay-Malabry and Plessis-Robinson. »
Until the Council of State?
Finally, she finds only one “defect” in this declaration of public utility: the prefect of Hauts-de-Seine “did not appropriate” and did not “not act” on the recommendations which he had been made. A “defect” which is “regularizable” by the production of a new decree, reassures the court, which gave the prefect until May 25, 2024 to review his copy.
Sud Environnement and the Châtenay Patrimoine Environnement Association also have until this date to lodge an appeal before the Council of State, the highest French administrative court.
/MJ (PressPepper)
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