Par
Coralie Durand
Published on
June 26, 2024 at 6:12 p.m.
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Monday June 24, 2024, a large public meeting was to mark the end of the consultation on the major Gavy real estate project, in Saint-Nazaire (Loire-Atlantique). Above all, it has pushed the two opposing clans to the point of caricature: on the one hand, the municipality and the project leaders; on the other, associations and local residents.
For two hours, the university amphitheater was transformed into a boxing ring. With, in the form of an uppercut and direct, a climate passive-aggressive in which all the remarks are intended to be effective punchlines. Without ever releasing the tension.
What is Destination Gavy?
This is the project carried out by the operator group Icade Promotion/Groupe Duva which plans on this land a housing program including a portion of social rental housing, a center dedicated to sport and training in this area with accommodation dedicated sites, a hotel, an office offering, a panoramic restaurant, a public belvedere and outdoor facilities.
“Environmental strategy”
It began with a declaration of David Samzun. The mayor, supported as in a meeting by a dozen municipal councilors from his majority applauding him, does not intend to let the signs (mostly photos of animals from the site) and the protests of opponents set the tone of the meeting. The elected official believes in his project, in his housing policy and puts all his conviction into it. Minus his diplomacy.
Who among you lives in a straw house? Where do you live ? If we don’t build, real estate will rise. But maybe that’s what you want.
This was followed by more than an hour of a reminder of the project: we quickly skipped over the buildings (in particular the “emergence” of 14 floors) to concentrate on “the planting of 600 trees”. Where opponents showed images of bats and birds, urban planners responded “environmental strategy”.
Some sentences provoke more reactions than others. This is the case when Frédéric Bonnet, architect from the Orbas firm, recalls that taller buildings are located in Saint-Nazaire, speaks of a “project to repair the site”, of the “disappearance of the cars”: mocking applause, remarks launched without so that we can understand them… The atmosphere is heavy.
A disproportionate project?
And it does not lighten up with the presentation which stretches out in length, going into details that few ultimately listen to, impatiently awaiting the time for questions. Some, tired, are already leaving the room. When this exchange finally arrives, we have more comments than questions. It does not matter to the opponents that the project leaders made modifications following the consultation workshops, “we are against it, that’s all”.
A modified project
Since the start of the consultation workshops, the project leaders have announced that they have brought together the participants’ comments. “We have received a lot of contributions, we will establish an assessment by the end of September, to be able to submit a planning permit at the end of the year, the building permit in 2025. The work should begin the year after “.
Already changes have been made. Thus, to avoid altering the large oak trees on the edge, the parking lot was repositioned, as was the location of three buildings. Another was even deleted: it was the one that should take the place of Gavy’s farm. “We will ultimately keep it given its historic character, it will be rehabilitated into a house.” The hotel spa will also not see the light of day, with discussions underway to readjust its volume.
Among the residents’ comments, “parking is a major issue that often comes up.” To free up spaces, Rue du Campus, currently closed due to the deformation of the roadway, will be reopened as a one-way street.
Specific points are still addressed.
Sixteen buildings! This is a completely disproportionate project.
No, say the architects, who speak of small buildings. The construction site? “For several years, we have been working to limit the impacts.” Another member of the public wonders about “the financial balance of the project. It’s because we want to ask to build as many housing units [336 sur tout le projet, ndlr] that you do. But it’s an impossible equation to solve.”
A non-dialogue
David Samzun then takes the microphone again and insistently repeats his housing policy, which he “fully embraces”, pushing opponents to their limits, particularly when they criticize him for the price of housing.2 future apartments. “Explain to me how we go about housing people? So, for you to accept, we would have to make 100% social housing? Your provocation is unbearable. I want housing for everyone, for the bankers as well as for the cleaning lady who works every day at the town hall.” “She won’t go there,” some members of the public respond. A non-dialogue which calmed no one.
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