There are two opposing visions for the city of Paris. On the one hand, there’s Paris City Hall’s desire to introduce a new bioclimatic local urban plan (PLU), which, among other things, imposes the followingallocate part of a building to social housing, in the event of major works. This obligation is known as “pastillage”. The aim is to achieve 40% public housing by 2035, including 30% social housing and 10% affordable housing (600 new sites will be reserved for social housing, including hundreds of office buildings). On the other, the elected representatives of Changer Paris (Republicans, Centrists and Independents), who intend to prevent these constraints on property owners from coming into being.

The PLU is currently being revised, and Changer Paris hopes to have its project adopted at the next Paris Council, to be held from November 19 to 22. The PLU was last revised almost 20 years ago, in 2006. This new PLU is therefore an exceptional revision.

“Asset values to fall by 30%” in buildings affected by the social mixing easementsaid Valérie Montandon, Changer Paris councillor for the 12th arrondissement, at a press conference on Thursday. The effects of the “pastillage” on thermal renovation are going to be “counter-productive“she assures us. “The risk is to freeze operations. The owners of the buildings concerned will not carry out renovation work and will block projects. The new PLU will slow down the ecological transition“fears Jean-Pierre Lecoq, mayor of the 6th arrondissement.

The owners of these large buildings are often banks, insurance companies, investment funds or foreign investors”.are not mandated by their shareholders to give up part of the value of their buildinghe asserts. International investors won’t understand and will sell their buildings“anticipates the mayor of the 6th arrondissement.

Listed buildings exempt

Among the more than 90 amendments tabled by the Changer Paris group, several relate to this much-criticized “pastillage”. Amendment no. 7 proposes to make the creation of social housing mandatory for all office building owners, but only for real estate transactions exceeding 15,000 square meters.

For smaller projects, the constraints would be removed. Amendment number 8 proposes “exempt buildings located in protected zones or those classified as historic monuments“from the obligation to create social housing.because of architectural and heritage constraints“. Changer Paris wishes to preserve the authenticity and charm of the city’s emblematic districts, “without imposing transformations incompatible with their historic value“.

Another amendment would exempt administrative and public buildings from the obligation to integrate social housing, “so as not to impose disproportionate constraints on the public infrastructure needed to run the city and the state“. Indeed, according to Valérie Montandon, pastillage adds complex rules to follow and sacrifices part of the surface area of buildings: “An office building housing social housing has to comply with two different fire regulations, and offer two different types of access, which all adds up to a loss of floor space.“.

A shortage of private housing

Another amendment suggests introducing the notion of private housing deficit zones into the PLU, targeting arrondissements where the proportion of social housing exceeds 40%. In these zones, a minimum of 60% private housing must be provided to “rebalance the residential supply”.. The aim is to respond to “the needs of Parisians looking for housing in neighborhoods where social housing is over-represented“.

Another cause for concern. Faubourg heritagemade up of small, low-rise buildings wedged between two taller ones, “deserves to keep its identity“explains the mayor of the 6th arrondissement, who is opposed to raising the height of Faubourg buildings. “Two-thirds of over-elevations currently concern faubourg-style buildings“regrets Anne Biraben, councillor for the 5th arrondissement of Paris. An amendment has been tabled by Changer Paris to protect this type of building by ensuring that it is not threatened by over-elevations, for example. “We don’t want an over-densified Paris“concludes David Alphand, Paris councillor for the 16th arrondissement and co-chairman of the Changer Paris group. It remains to be seen whether these amendments will be adopted by the City of Paris.