The adoption of the local bioclimatic urban plan for Paris is entering its home stretch. Ahead of the examination of this framework which will set the rules for the development of the capital, Anne Hidalgo's team organized, this Thursday morning, a final professional morning on the subject. The text must be voted on next week by the Paris Council before being submitted to a legality check by the regional prefecture on November 28 or 29.
Assistant (PS) for town planning since last July, Lamia El Aaraje recalled the philosophy of the project: “Mix housing and office, don’t say “no” to the office, but accompany it with a share of housing”, “adapt the city to climate change” et “continue to make Paris a livable city”. Ideas carried by his predecessor Emmanuel Grégoire from November 2020 until his election to the National Assembly last summer, the day after the early legislative elections.
Paris: who is Lamia El Aaraje, Hidalgo's new deputy in charge of town planning and Greater Paris?
120 spaces reserved for housing likely to be eliminated
With the help of district mayors, the municipality has identified addresses, including office buildings, to create housing there – this is what the municipality calls “pastillage” aimed at converting these buildings. City Hall confirmed this morning that 514 new locations would be reserved for housing. But 120 of them are likely to be deleted following the debate in the Paris Council, said the new director of town planning in the capital, Ariane Bouleau.
And for good reason: the commission of inquiry expressed a reservation on the possibility of producing housing in ten private educational establishments. Other possible exceptions: in the case where work is in progress or when it was carried out less than ten years ago, but also when the transformation is too complex, or even technically impossible.
The municipality also hopes to see the proliferation of “housing development zones” where the office space cannot be increased. Here again, the rule has evolved following the said commission of inquiry: it will be possible to create offices if and only if 500 m² of housing is created.
Two exceptions to the rule of servitude of social diversity
The City has always defended the concept of “functional diversity easement”, even if it meant attracting the wrath of the opposition group Changer Paris, chaired by Rachida Dati, mayor of the 7th arrondissement and Minister of Culture, but also of Medef Paris or even the French association of real estate investment companies (Aspim).
Urban planning plan in Paris: professionals denounce “an aberration”, Hidalgo’s first deputy responds to them
From January 1, 2025, any building created or restructured, with a surface area greater than 5,000 square meters and located in the west of Paris, must devote at least 10% of its surface area to the creation of housing. To this rule is added a new provision which applies from 4,500 m² of offices.
A regulation which is accompanied by a “social diversity easement” namely the obligation to introduce social housing from 500 m². This injunction will ultimately not apply either to 100% social housing buildings in the event of major restructuring, nor to high-rise buildings (IGH). The latter are in fact subject to much heavier regulations than traditional buildings, for example for fire safety.
Environmentalists and communists in line behind the socialists
Urban logistics warehouses, cinemas and the construction sector will remain in the technical classification of “surface with residential function”. In other words, the municipality intends “ maintain economic and productive activity in the city ».
In the middle of this Prévert inventory, the 300 hectares of green spaces remain on the agenda. Clearly, it is a question of going from 3 to 10 m² per inhabitant. Circumspect in the past, the president (ecologist) of the City's planning commission, Émile Meunier, defended, this morning, “a united and united majority for the town planning of the future”.
« Yes, we had direct and strong positions which were able, legitimately, to [les professionnels de l’immobilier] question, but we must change the urban planning of the last twenty years. I am very optimistic for the future. Now you will have clear rules, rules that invite negotiated urban planning. It's exciting to think about urban planning together », continued the elected representative of the 18th century, very lively.
A position shared by the Deputy (PCF) for Housing, Jacques Baudrier, who was pleased to have obtained, for 2025, a better budget than last year. The latter was 500 million euros just for social housing. For tomorrow, the envelope will be amended and voted on in the Paris Council next December. Nevertheless: the municipal elections are the day after tomorrow, in March 2026, and the corridors of City Hall are already wondering about the succession of the socialist Anne Hidalgo.
