Tor in turn, two public inquiries will be opened in the coming weeks as part of the revision of the PLU (local town planning plans) of the municipalities of Saint-Jean-d'Angle and Champagne. Behind the administrative side of the procedure, the medium-term future of the two municipalities located south of Rochefort is taking shape.
Champagne has thus gained 90 inhabitants over the last six years. If INSEE revealed the figure of 637 inhabitants during its last delivery, the population would be “actually 670 and 710 with those counted separately (students, convalescents)”, underlines Roland Clochard, the mayor.
There would only be three empty houses left, compared to more than double before Covid. Other transactions rejuvenated the population with the arrival of families in a town without hollow teeth due to its configuration, as it was built on a rocky spur.
In its PLU, the municipality “considers reasonable demographic growth of 0.4% per year”, i.e. producing around thirty housing units by 2034. With this in mind, and under the Climate and Resilience Law, it must reduce by half the consumption of land compared to the previous decade (2012-2021) which saw the absorption of 4.3 ha of agro-natural land, at the rate of the construction of “two houses per year on average”, continues the mayor.
Developments
In the medium term, 2.4 ha will be authorized, the majority of which, i.e. 2.1 ha, will be concentrated in a subdivision, the first here, necessarily on the edge of the town. Located at the exit of the village near the school, it should see the development of around thirty houses on these plots belonging to a handful of owners, on condition of “finding a developer”.
By integrating the roads and a connection bar to the D 18, the average surface area of the lots should be around 500 m², a far cry from the vast lots that were once the norm. “There are no more large lawns to maintain and mow,” says Roland Clochard, who also announces another development: single-storey pavilions are no longer popular, he will impose R + 1 houses in this perspective of densification space.
“It's not surprising to count on thirty additional houses,” assures Roland Clochard, arguing in particular about the 150 jobs expected at Voltaero at the Rochefort Saint-Agnant airport within reach.
The neighboring town of Saint-Jean-d'Angle is also affected by this new local locomotive. In the shadow of its large bell tower and its medieval halls, Saint-Jean-d'Angle has seen its population grow by 80 inhabitants in around ten years, to reach 707 souls, according to INSEE (including around sixty of residents of the nursing home). After the 4.2 ha consumed between 2013 and 2023, 2.13 ha are permitted.
-Mayor of Saint-Jean-d'Angle, Michel Durieux shows the one hectare plot of land which was to accommodate five to six artisanal businesses at the entrance to the town.
David Briand
A progression in the recent past at the rate of “four to five new houses per year and five to six births on average”, summarizes Mayor Michel Durieux. A municipality which remains “old”, 80% of the territory of which is classified as a wetland or Natura 2000 but which has already taken the turn towards housing developments, with the sites of the Moquillons fields, the Route des Sables and Saint-Fort.
A third will be planned near the stadium on one hectare, making it possible to count on ten lots, put up for sale by the municipality, “at less than 100 euros per m² of serviced land”. “We do not want all housing to be uniform,” announces the mayor, who is also banking on plot densification. Vacant homes were reduced from 23 to 13.
The novelty lies in the choice to develop a one-hectare craft zone for five to six businesses (including a technical inspection) facing the cemetery.
As in Champagne, Saint-Jean-d'Angle wants to maintain a reasonable reception of new inhabitants, reluctant to become a dormitory town which would exceed 1,000 inhabitants. Otherwise there will be problems for “the wastewater treatment plant, school premises, canteens”, says Michel Durieux. The seven classes of the RPI (with the 3e commune of La Gripperie-Saint-Symphorien) today welcome 165 students.
A ghost housing estate in Champagne
How far away the time seems when Champagne obtained the possibility of building on 20 hectares in 2007! A subdivision project comprising around sixty lots had emerged. Then an executive at La Poste, Roland Clochard remembers that the names of the streets had been assigned and numbering work done. Las. The global financial crisis of 2007-2008 arrived, preventing land from selling. They have become unbuildable again. So much so that the first subdivision of the town should see the light of day two decades later.
