This is one of the measures of the “supply shock” of housing promised by Gabriel Attal and set to music in the bill on affordable housing, presented Friday May 3 in the Council of Ministers and which will arrive at the beginning of June before the Senate: “facilitate the gentle densification of residential areas”and particularly, according to the Prime Minister, by allowing the building of an additional home in one’s garden.
On paper, the idea ticks many boxes: “Suburban neighborhoods have enormous potential for creating housing”notes urban planner Sylvain Grisot, author of Urban redirection. On the adaptation sites of our territories (Apogee, 240 pages, 20 euros). And their densification appears essential to meet the objective of the Climate and Resilience Law of 2021: build less on natural, agricultural and forestry areas, to achieve zero net artificialization by 2050.
This objective also makes it possible to maintain the production of individual houses, which represented more than half of the housing built during the last decade and where 79% of French people would prefer to live, according to a Kantar survey for La Fabrique de la cite carried out in 2022. “Another advantage: these houses, unlike buildings, can be built on small plots and without resorting to a developer, which reduces their cost”argues David Miet, co-founder and director of Villes vivants, a start-up that wants “do town planning with residents”.
“Limit subdivisions »
Will the few measures contained in the law be enough to boost gentle densification? “They can allow mayors to respond to certain blockages, even if they already have tools to densify a specific sector. But they will not be enough to trigger a supply shock! »estimates Thierry Repentin, socialist mayor of Chambéry and co-chair of the working group on housing within the Association of Mayors of France.
While the government is counting on mayors to drive the movement, they have not stood out for their voluntarism in recent years. And this is explained, according to Sylvain Grisot: “The densification of neighborhoods of individual houses is already happening, but it has not proven to be so gentle, leading to the emergence of buildings that are not desirable. This aroused citizen distrust and conflict. Mayors therefore rather restricted building rights. »
Benjamin Aubry, architect-urban planner and founder of iudo, a start-up specializing in the intensification of residential areas, is thus confronted with “a desire for hyper-preservation of these areas, particularly in Ile-de-France, with local intercommunal town planning plans [PLUi], like that of Vincennes and Saint-Maur-des-Fossés, which are 800 pages, and 1,000 pages of annexes. They are mainly directed against the construction of buildings by developers, but also have the effect of discouraging owners from embarking on the creation of new housing.. David Miet, from Villes Vivantes, also notes that metropolises tend to freeze their suburban neighborhoods: “Ecological arguments are invoked. But a small planted garden is more effective against heat islands than a large lawn. Above all, is it socially acceptable and better for the environment to force those who have less means to live far away, which increases their transport costs and pollution? »
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