Par
David Goudey
Published on
Jan 18, 2025 at 7:16 p.m.
It is a long battle that Lidl has just won in Yvelines. In a judgment of December 12, 2024, made public on Wednesday January 15, 2025, the cour administrative d’appel de Versailles has rejected Auchan’s request to cancel the building permit granted in February 2023 to its competitor for the extension of the Coignières (Yvelines) store, along the RN 10.
The operation, whose duration is estimated between a year and a year and a half, involves the demolition of the existing supermarket (990 m2) – replaced by a car park for customers – and the former Lada car dealership, where the new commercial area of almost 1 700 m2.
Auchan multiplies appeals
The project, which received the green light from the Yvelines departmental commercial development commission in July 2022, was contested by Auchan before the national commercial development commission. The court rejected the appeal and authorized Lidl to carry out its operation.
Didier Fischer, mayor (various left) of Coignières, will deliver the 1is February 2023 on building permit “values as a commercial exploitation authorization”. Las. Safipar, the company that owns Auchan, will take legal action on March 28, 2023 to request its cancellation.
A useless project for the applicant
The Lidl project does not propose “any offer responding to a need of the population which would not already be covered by the existing offer in the catchment area”, criticized the applicant company. ” He […] is disconnected from places of residence and the urban fabric”, added Auchan, and “will not contribute […] to the dynamism and revitalization of city centers” in the sector.
“There are already eight commercial centers in the catchment area, including nine large commercial areas, as well as ten commercial facilities within the perimeter of neighboring towns. »
The judges do not share Auchan’s vision
But “if the commercial zone is built linearly between the RN10 and a railway line, which constitute physical and psychological barriers, it is not located not very far from the city center of Coignièresin particular of the station”, objects the administrative court of appeal of Versailles in its judgment of December 12, 2024. The court adds: “The area […] is only a 10 to 15 minute walk from the various nearest residential areas. »
-” The population of this same area has certainly been in slight decline for ten years, but only by 0.75%, the Versailles judges also put it into perspective. In addition, some municipalities […] experienced an increase in their population, notably of 8% for La Verrière, where a new eco-district, planned around the station […]plans the construction of 1,400 housing units, with shops and offices. »
The new Lidl will “improve the welcome of customers and staff”
“The activity zone” where Lidl is located is also “well served by a road”, underlines the administrative court of appeal. The project will therefore “improve the reception of customers and staff, in conditions approaching those of current standards offered by the Lidl brand.
The “vacancy” of commercial premises in the town center of Coignières – of “21.43%” – is also “to be put into perspective with the low number of shops” in the town: there are only “fourteen »… against “seventy-five” in Maurepas.
Le Mesnil-Saint-Denis, for its part, experiences “a commercial vacancy rate zero”, even though it is “the municipality hosting the largest number of businesses after Maurepas”, underlines the administrative court of appeal of Versailles.
Safipar’s appeal was therefore rejected. The company will also have to pay 1 000 € to Lidl and as much to the City of Coignières for their respective legal fees.
MJ (PressPepper)
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