The Obelisk tower will be completely evacuated to Épinay (Seine-Saint-Denis). While residents of the gigantic condominium, 96 meters high and 32 floors, had challenged the decree issued by the prefect of Seine-Saint-Denis aimed at emptying it completely, in two stages, before December 8, the administrative court rejected their request on Tuesday. “In view of the reports of the three experts who examined the building, and in particular of the expertise ordered by the administrative court, the judge in chambers considered that there was a real risk of the balconies of the South, East and West facades collapsing” , the court said in a statement.
The court therefore considers that the prefect’s decision appeared, at this stage of the investigation, “necessary to prevent the imminent danger to public safety and health”, she continues. “People are stunned, reacts this hot Tuesday evening Daniel, one of the applicants, an architect by profession. Humanly, it is extremely difficult to live. Above all, there is no justification for the choice, we are given no explanation. Justice is blind…” He, owner for twenty years in the tower, had not yet received “any relocation proposal”, he indicates. This Tuesday evening, he decided to pack his bags to “move permanently to Ariège”, where he has a few relatives.
Originally, the mayor (SE) of Épinay Hervé Chevreau had refused to issue this evacuation order, considering that the expertise was not sufficiently advanced to justify it. At the beginning of November, he had a technical counter-assessment carried out, in particular on the question of the metal stiffeners deemed “heavily corroded” by an initial assessment, and whose effectiveness “could no longer be guaranteed. The design office, in its conclusions, had indicated that these steel spinners did not support the balconies… And that there was therefore no urgency to evacuate. The study had been sent to the prefect, then to the administrative court. It obviously had no impact on his decision.
A first evacuation in chaos on November 15
A first evacuation of the south facade of the tower, the first concerned by the risk of the balconies collapsing, took place in chaos on November 15. Regarding the situation of the inhabitants remaining in the tower, the prefect of Seine-Saint-Denis, Jacques Witkowski, had assured in our columns that 100% of them would be “offered temporary accommodation solutions”, which will go from a few days to a few weeks in hotels or hotel apartments. Solutions sometimes deemed “too far away” by owners or tenants, many of whom have children attending school in Épinay.
As for more lasting solutions, particularly in the case of owners who had not yet sold to CDC Habitat — which had begun to buy back around sixty apartments in the tower, before relocating the owners to their social stock — the prefect indicated that the State would do “everything possible to help people find housing”. He has not set a deadline, and temporary accommodation can therefore be extended in the event of difficulty: “We will take the time necessary. »
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