There is uproar in the office of the Secretary of State in charge of town planning, Ans Persoons, who had to issue a circular specifying the rule. The surface limit (0.1 m2) then becomes a volume limit (maximum 8 dm3 per facade). For the sake of feasibility, the cables, which connect the boxes, are excluded from this rule and that on color. But for cases, the rule of “similar shade” remains in force.
gull“For facades with colors radically different from these three shades, it will be appropriate, if the housing is not painted in a similar color, to obtain planning permission”
The Brussels Region is preparing to publish guidelines for operators to adapt their equipment. Three colors, agreed with operators and municipalities, will now be available for the boxes, namely black, light gray and terracotta (brick). For their next installations, operators will therefore have to choose the shade closest to the facade where they want to place their device. For white, yellow or light-colored plasters, it will be the gray model. For brick walls, it will be terracotta and for dark gray facades, it will be black.
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The guidelines nevertheless specify that “for facades of colors radically different from these three shades, it will be appropriate, in the absence of painting the case of a similar color (stickers are prohibited)to obtain a planning permit.” The boxes must also discreetly indicate the name of the operator who operates them.
The cables are also entitled to some clarifications: they must – as is already obligatory – “follow the architectural lines of the facade” but also “limit yourself to the strict minimum on the front.” Finally, no more cables wound into a spool and left dangling. Operators will no longer be able to “leave cables on standby beyond the period of network deployment work carried out on the section of the street concerned.”
All these new provisions concern new installations but also existing devices. In other words, a black box already installed on a brick facade will have to be replaced. In short, the majority of boxes already installed in Brussels will have to be replaced.
No direct PV
The question then arises of the deadlines for putting all this in order. Concretely, the guidelines will come into force as soon as they are officially published on the website of the regional administration in charge of town planning, which must be done “very soon.” But technically, it is impossible to ask operators to change everything in a few days.
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“We consider that the boxes already installed (mainly in black, Editor’s note) are in violationspecifies the Persoons firm to La Derniere Heure. Therefore, it is up to the operators to bring the installations back into compliance as quickly as possible. We are not going to issue a report straight away. But they must do it and are committed to it (as part of the discussions that were held with them, Editor’s note). S“They don’t do it, Urban and the municipalities will be able to draw up reports.”
Please note that for classified properties, a permit application remains mandatory for any façade installation.
Question of interpretation
The fact remains that this story of color was not the heart of the remarks made by the citizens mobilized on the issue. For them, the goal was above all to limit the number of devices on the facades. Today, each operator deploys its own network. The goal was therefore to force their hand to create a single network that market players would share. On this point, the region is slipping up since this regulation is a federal jurisdiction.
At the regional level, however, the file is not about to be closed since the Council of State will work this Thursday on the interpretation of the circular which excludes cables from the volumetric limit per facade and from the color provisions. Michael De Borman, lead of the appeal, believes that the cables should be included within the limit of 8 dm3 and also be painted to match the colors of the facades.
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The Secretary of State indicated this Monday in the Territorial Development Committee that this is a “unreasonable reading of the circular”. This would not be “concretely and reasonably neither feasible nor calculable nor desirable.” The State Council’s auditor has already ruled in favor of the Secretary of State’s position, but the final decision could diverge.
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