In Blois, the trees that hid the forest of commercial signs

“It’s a disaster, really…” On this April morning, in Blois in the Loir-et-Cher, rain lashed the distressed face of Sylvie Delahodde, head of the condominium trustee of this commercial area, as there are thousands in France. Inaugurated in 2017, the site has found its place between an automotive injector factory and a carpenter’s warehouse.

Its main building, made of sheet metal and concrete, housed a discount hypermarket for two years before giving way to a weight room, a franchised bakery, a household appliance store and a pet store. Next door, Courtepaille and KFC. In the center, a large paved parking lot with sixty-six diseased or dead shrubs.

Eight months earlier, at the same locations, there were sixty-six tall, vigorous trees, leafy enough to shade cars or protect Uber Eats delivery people from bad weather. “The area is not the most aesthetic, but with all these trees, it looked great”, assures Christophe Degruelle, president of the urban community of Blois.

Chainsaw Massacre

Except that one afternoon in September 2021, without warning, all these trees were cut down. Cropped flush. It took less than three hours for a cohort of workers to overcome it. Onlookers and shop employees attended, terrified, the disastrous spectacle. “Between two cuts, a guy just assured us that it was to see the signs better from the road”, remembers a saleswoman. Felling of trees to make room for shops: more and more inhabitants of more or less large cities are sorry for this anti-ecological arbitration.

A handful of photos of the ransacking of the Blois site then emerged on Facebook and then Twitter. An article appears in The New Republic. The local radio Sweet FM relays popular amazement. In an open letter addressed to the owner of the commercial area, Christophe Degruelle and the mayor of Blois, Marc Gricourt (PS), denounce “an unacceptable ecological massacre and practices that run counter to all the policies carried out in favor of the environment, biodiversity and the fight against global warming”. They require the new operator in the area, who has just bought this set, to replant everything identically, “in accordance with the building permit”.

A bluff, because the city councilors are well aware of their inability to act on private land. “According to our legal services, we were there in a situation of lawlessness since the owner did not need authorization to cut the trees, explains Christophe Degruelle. However, these trees were included in the building permit filed and accepted at the town hall. »

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