A rusty crane from the last century, a large hangar, rails and a gigantic wasteland: the land known as the “Cour de Nice”, in Toulon, is not really the kind of place you would expect to be found in the middle of a city of 180,000 inhabitants. Wedged between the south of the railway line and Avenue Commandant-Marchand, this site has been looking for a future for several years. And he has, it seems, never been closer to finding it.
Recently, a regulatory display appeared at the foot of the Les Cyprès HLM residence, along the famous site. It mentions a division of the plot carried out by the owner of the premises, SNCF Logistics Immobilier. Purpose of the operation: to allow the railway company to sell a piece of its land. This lot of 1.13 hectares – or a third of the total surface area – would in this case be “intended for the construction of public facilities”. Which ones?
“Strong land potential”…
On the subject, the Toulon town hall is hardly forthcoming. Mohamed Mahali, the elected official in charge of town planning, only confirms that “negotiations are still ongoing” for the sale of the property. The mixed economy company VAD, the strong arm of local authorities for urban development, could become a buyer on behalf of the City or the TPM metropolis.
Offices, homes, fire station, extension of the Saint-Jean clinic, Caf headquarters… In recent years, numerous projects have been imagined by the municipality in this “Cour de Nice”, where storage spaces and transport routes remain. garage for trains. The Local Urban Planning Plan (PLU) thus speaks of a plot of land “strong land potential”. With its pitfalls: “It is a landlocked area, with rugged topography and heavy road traffic.”
…but “no accommodation”?
Still in this document, the municipality explains that it wishes “the establishment of a space for tertiary activities, commerce and crafts, as well as a building dedicated to housing, type R + 2 to R + 8 and with a floor area of approximately 35,000m²”.
All, in particular, in place of the current “activity buildings”. One, long dedicated to rail freight then rented to a moving company, has not been used for five years. However, and contrary to what is mentioned in the PLU, Mohamed Mahali wishes to emphasize that there is “no immediate housing plans”.
To imagine what the place could become, a connoisseur of the file refers to the program on which Hubert Falco was elected in 2020. In his campaign brochure, the former mayor assures that the Court of Nice will be dedicated to “museum reserves and archives of the city of Toulon, the Metropolis and the Department.”
A lead that would still be relevant, according to our interlocutor: “The tunnel passes right under the large hangar. The communities have realized that we cannot do major construction above it”. Just a stone’s throw away, the funny silhouette of the “east ventilation unit”, supposed to evacuate fumes from the north tube in the event of a problem, reminds us that 60,000 vehicles pass here every day, fifteen meters below the ground. A gigantic wasteland of course, but with its own specificities. And not least.
