The town hall of Lanton (Gironde) wishes to sell the current football stadium and tennis courts to a real estate developer. A new sports area would be created on another site. A group of residents points out a risk of saturation of the sanitation network.
The town hall is preparing to sell its football stadium and tennis courts to a developer to make it around a hundred housing units, 30% of which are social housing. A market hall, shops and more than 200 parking spaces are also planned in the project. The land has a total area of 2.3 hectares. Its selling Price is listed at 5.5 million euros.
“This project, given its size, on two sites, is historic,” protests Patrick Gatine, secretary of the Lanton à Cœur association. “And the gift is that it is located on flood-prone land (…). And this has never been discussed by the residents.”
The project would be to create a sports area in Muchon. There would be three football fields, tennis and padel courts, as well as an area dedicated to archery. Not enough to satisfy the inhabitants of the town obviously. “We have a beautiful football stadium that is widely used by the local club,” recalls Michel Cazeaux, a local resident. “We also have tennis with competitions, it’s very lively. All of this will disappear if we follow the project. It’s a shame.”
The collective has initiated litigation proceedings with the Bordeaux administrative court.
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“We are almost defending future residents because there is going to be a problem at some point,” explains Annick Deguille, president of the Lanton à Cœur association. “There are going to be water problems on these lands.” Michel Cazeau lives right next door and he fears new floods like the one experienced this winter. “The construction of 110 housing units and 220 parking spaces raises health issues. The water table does not allow that. We can have rises in the gardens, or even in the houses close to the site.”
According to the members of the collective, alternatives exist. “It’s not a problem on the ground, there are others.” recalls Annick Deguille. “But here, we are 300 m from the basin (…). I understand that developers or even people are interested in living not far from the basin. But at a given moment, there are things that are not not possible.”
The undersizing of the sanitation networks in the Arcachon basin was widely denounced this winter following several overflows, as was the lack of housing for local workers in this very popular area.
On April 24, a site visit was organized by the City for interested companies. Candidates for purchase have until May 13 to make an offer. Price for the land: 5.5 million euros. Marie Larrue, mayor of Lanton, did not wish to answer our questions. She reportedly planned to receive opponents of the project on May 15.
