Lodève sets out to reconquer Soulondres and Lergue. At the start of 2025, three project management teams, resulting from the international competition launched on November 8, will seek the best way to get out of the rut of industrial neglectdug at the end of the 20th century: “The city drew its driving force from its rivers, to which it now turns its back,” describes sub-prefect Eric Suzanne.
Faith in architecture
In October 2025, with the participation of representatives of residents, the jury will designate the winner who will support the transformation of the city. The compatibility of the project with the risk of flooding is one of the many challenges it will have to respond to. The vulnerability of the territory is concentrated near two aerial car parks. The cars loaded by the 2015 flood have left their mark on memories, and the increasingly frequent prefectural alerts maintain awareness of the risks generated by the episodes in the Cévennes.
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Ambition comes from afar. “Since 2008, Lodève has been developing an urban renovation strategy, with the objective of rebuilding the city on itself”recall the authors of the application submitted by the town hall and the sub-prefecture, under the title “The shores that bind us”. Passionate about architecture, Eric Suzanne considers it “a source of wealth” and “the expression of faith in the future”.
Good student of public policies
These two ingredients meet the need for the priority district of city policy, whose perimeter merges with that of the center of Lodève. More than half of the 3,700 inhabitants live below the poverty lineafter the end of the activities of Cogema and Dim.
To escape this spiral, Lodève is responding to all the support policies it can access: a central town in the Occitanie region, it has initiated a territorial revitalization operation (ORT) and a planned housing renovation operation in urban renewal (Opah-RU)following its selection in the small towns of tomorrow program. A remarkable heritage site procedure began in 2019.
Employability and reuse
In 2020, a citizen consultation validated the idea of reconquering the banks: “Soft inter-district connections, new public spaces and housing along rivers structure the project”summarizes Gaëlle Lévêque, who highlights several distinctive features: “the smallest of the 10 districts of tomorrow, and “the only one whose mayor is a woman”. Perhaps also the most comprehensive, from water management to housing and public space through citizen participation.
To redevelop the banks of the Soulondres and the Lergue, the mayor plans to mobilize an employment company, certified by the region. Long-term unemployed people will use deconstructed materials, provided by the local platform La Grande Conserve. Working with dry stone will give new life to ancestral know-how and a local resource. Dewaterproofing and revegetation will contribute to urban requalification and slowing down runoff.
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One risk hides the other
Making the project compatible with flood risk will involve raising public awareness. The new river crossings will close during violent rainy periods. ” But runoff issues spare the lower town, faced with management constraints more than planning », Specifies Arnaud Le Beuze, director of the ecological transition center at the Lodevois & Larzac community of municipalities.
Higher up in the city, the torrential risk motivated a study which contributes to refining the local intercommunal urban planning plan, currently under public inquiry. To objectivize the rules, the community of municipalities commissioned the Alisé Géomatique design office.
Vulnerability modeling made it possible to distinguish vulnerable and intermediate zones : inconstructibility is imposed on the former, while in the latter, the works must prove that they cause neither aggravation nor additional exposure.
