Paris is reviewing its main urban planning project from A to Z, the future district of Bercy-Charenton

In Paris, it was to be “the site of the decade”. A real dream for promoters. Six huge office towers, hotels, housing, a swimming pool, a school… The project for the new Bercy-Charenton district will see the light of day. But in a completely different configuration than that voted in 2018 by the elected officials of Paris. There will finally be twice as many green spaces as expected, and half as many offices as housing, announced Emmanuel Grégoire, the first deputy mayor, Anne Hidalgo, Thursday, April 21. The capital’s main urban planning project has been reviewed from A to Z.

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The challenge goes beyond the future of these 80 hectares located in the 12and district, wedged between the A4, a monstrous interchange, the railways, and extended by an area of ​​12 hectares, in full redevelopment, too, in the town of Charenton, on the other side of the ring road. The file should serve as “demonstrator” for the next major Parisian projects, said Emmanuel Grégoire. It will constitute a first application of the new planning rules which must be engraved in stone in the local urban plan. “bioclimatic” by 2024.

During the debate on the initial project, in 2018, the walls of the Town Hall had shaken. The right and environmentalists had violently challenged a new “densification” of Paris, and considered anachronistic the construction of towers climbing up to 180 meters. The plan had only been adopted by 5 votes… before being quickly called into question. During negotiations between the two rounds of municipal elections in 2020, environmentalists had posed the total overhaul of the project as one of the conditions for their rallying to Anne Hidalgo.

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No tower

The drafts unveiled by Emmanuel Grégoire are the result of this overhaul. The ecologists got what they were aiming for: no towers, much less construction, at least 45% of green spaces, offices likely to be transformed into housing one day… “We are starting on a good basis”, rejoices Emmanuelle Pierre-Marie, the mayor (EELV) of 12and. The communist allies, whose housing is the priority, are less pleased: “We have agreed to significantly reduce the living areas, but we will not go any further”, warns their boss Nicolas Bonnet-Oulaldj. The right remains skeptical. “It still seems hyperdense, comments Valérie Montandon, elected LR of 12and. Is this really compatible with the future urban plan? I doubt. »

Of the project designed by the British architect Richard Rogers, there is not much left. Exit the six skyscrapers that were to respond to the 190-meter tower to be erected on the Charenton side. Apartment buildings will not exceed 50 meters, and offices will be capped at 35 meters. The idea of ​​a district on slab, which consumes too much carbon, has been abandoned. The open ground will be preserved as much as possible, as will the railway heritage, in particular the former La Rapée freight station. The property company Sogaris plans to install a 17,000 m logistics hotel there.2 directly connected to the track.

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