Far from being unanimous among elected Parisians, the project for a “large Eiffel Tower site” was nevertheless approved on Tuesday, February 8, at the Council of Paris. And this, in particular thanks to the approval of the elected representatives of the environmental group, who finally agreed to line up behind the executive on this file.
Presented to the public in May 2019 and reviewed several times until today, this project to redevelop the surroundings of the Eiffel Tower aims, according to the Parisian municipality, “to find a landscape, environmental, ecological and heritage coherence”. The objectives are in particular to “offer a new space for walking and relaxation”, to “bring life back to the gardens of the Trocadero and the Champ de Mars”, to “improve the visitor experience” of the Iron Lady, to “give more space to pedestrians and plants” or even “to improve the management of major events”.
To do this, it plans to create a huge green promenade from the Place du Trocadéro to the Ecole Militaire, passing through the Jardins du Trocadéro and the Pont d’Iéna, to the Emile Anthoine gymnasium, located near of the Eiffel Tower. And this, according to 3 main principles listed by Emmanuel Grégoire, the first deputy mayor of Paris, which are “to offer more spaces to pedestrians”, “to develop the place of nature” and “to highlight the Trocadéro-Eiffel Tower-Military School prospect”.
The decisive support of ecologists
An ambitious project which would not have been approved without the support of the elected representatives of the environmental group at the Council of Paris, who demanded in particular the adoption of a “moratorium” on the lawns of the northern part of the Champ-de-Mars , as well as the assurance that the City of Paris would “gradually reduce the events authorized on the site in order to reach a total of 250 days of rest in 2025 where no event will take place on the site’s green spaces”. Concessions that the first deputy, also in charge of town planning, was kind enough to accept.
“The adoption of our wish and our amendment are a new step in the transformation of this emblematic site”, welcomed the elected ecologists to the Council of Paris, who also “committed themselves to making the surroundings of the Eiffel Tower a more peaceful, vegetated space conducive to the development of soft mobility, by drastically reducing the place of the car”. “Through this project, two appalling roundabouts, dedicated to the car, will disappear in favor of pedestrianized and green spaces for pedestrians and cyclists”, underlined the president of the group, Fatoumata Koné.
The anger of the mayors of the 7th, 15th and 16th
“We strongly disagree with the Greens’ vision of a so-called compromise. It’s pure communication and a fool’s game to the detriment of Parisians”, for their part regretted the elected representatives of the Changer Paris group, which includes the mayors of the 7th, 15th and 16th arrondissements, the most concerned by this urban planning project. wingspan. In a press release issued after the vote at the Council of Paris, they regretted the decision of the Greens, who according to them “criticize an anti-ecological project but hold the trowel hand in hand with the Socialists”.
Worse, according to them, the elected representatives of the environmental group “have obtained nothing about the Site One project, which will see the light of day as desired by the municipal executive to which they belong and of which they are accomplices”. Speaking on behalf of the Changer Paris group, Agnès Evren assured that the residents of the 7th, 15th and 16th arrondissements were preparing “to live through hell” because of the works and would thus suffer “full force from the obsession with anti- car” of the Parisian municipality, which according to it does not take into account “the 6,124 opinions of Parisians collected [dans le cadre de la consultation du public par voie électronique (PPVE), ndlr] who all unanimously proclaim their concern about the closure of the Jena bridge to traffic”.
“This project does not satisfy anyone, whatever their convictions! Parisians are constantly reminded of this. The digital consultation made a clear diagnosis: the project was overwhelmingly rejected. It convinces neither the inhabitants, nor the associations and even less the residents”, also added Rachida Dati, the mayor of the 7th arrondissement and president of the Changer Paris group, who regretted that “no sincere and objective impact study [n’ait été] proposed on the traffic deferrals caused by the closure of Place Jacques Rueff and Avenue Joseph Bouvard”.
Critics swept away by the executive, which intends to carry out this project – which “raises fears, because it is a major subject” according to Florian Sitbon, elected Paris en Commun, who defended the critics point by point from the right on this. For the president of the environmental group, Fatoumata Koné, it is a question before transforming “this major French and world tourist place”, which is not according to her, “currently not worthy of the national and international prestige which it enjoys”.