For its detractors, it is a bit like the Saudi ski resort project related to the Loire Valley. For its supporters, it is the possibility of a windfall of tax revenue comparable to that of the EDF nuclear power plant in Saint-Laurent. Straddling the rural towns of La Ferté-Saint-Cyr and Saint-Laurent-Nouan, and barely fifteen kilometers from the Château de Chambord, it is therefore planned to open three golf courses of nine holes each, surrounded by 565 secondary houses. , a palace and a host of facilities: horse-riding centre, conference centre, swimming pool, fitness room, shops and restaurants.
The Domaine des Pommereaux, that’s its name, aims to spread over 400 hectares “closed and guarded” including cattle pastures according to the file accompanying the public consultation which ends this Friday, October 14. If the entrepreneur Bernard Saunier, on the initiative, does not wish to reveal the names of his partner-investors, he promises the creation of at least 220 jobs, with the care of a potential clientele of hunters, riders and amateur golfers. . “A clientele with strong purchasing power, oriented towards local and regional products”specifies the market study.
Collective awareness
During a public meeting on September 14, at the municipal hall of La Ferté-Saint-Cyr, Mr. Saunier considered himself irreproachable on the environmental level, in the face of a public who did not understand that one could consume 5 000 m3 of water per day for a golf course… in an area that is all the more subject to watering restrictions. Mr. Saunier announced a larger reforestation than the deforestation expected to design the green. And relied on a recent impact study commissioned by him.
“Creating a golf course is even more unworthy in this period of imposed sobriety” Nicolas Orgelet, elected EELV in Blois
It reads: “The disappearance of a farm of 460 cattle, bringing pollution equivalent to that of a city of nearly 5,000 inhabitants, can only have positive effects, in particular on the quality of the water flowing downstream. of the site. » The Centre-Val de Loire regional environmental authority mission is less enthusiastic “Its realization would lead to the elimination of very large areas of agricultural land, wooded areas but also wetlands in Natura 2000 sites.” It even considers that the impact study in question “cannot be considered sufficient”.
On November 9, 2021, the prefect of Loir-et-Cher François Pesneau issued a favorable opinion ” with reservations “, concerning the preliminary study of collective agricultural compensation, which is one of the steps leading to the realization of the project. Nicolas Orgelet, landscape designer, elected EELV in Blois and vice-president of the intermunicipal union of the Blois conurbation, which includes the municipalities targeted by the project, intends to raise collective awareness in order to stop the costs: “In the midst of a climate crisis, when the water tables are at their lowest, biodiversity is collapsing, local agriculture must be shared, how can a project reserved for a luxury clientele be supported, ignoring all of this? Creating a golf course is even more unworthy in this period of imposed sobriety. »
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