But the pace of the construction sites arouses the opposition of collectives of inhabitants who denounce a “rampant urbanization“to the detriment of the living environment.
“It’s not New York here!“, “No to the infernal tower!“At the entrance to Rennes, a dozen banners hung on the facades of small houses express the exasperation of the inhabitants at the arrival of a 17-storey tower.
“Welcoming people, we have nothing against it, what bothers us is the height, we are no longer reasonable“, worries Benjamin Hubert, member of the collective”The Disenchanted Enchanter“.
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Further east, another collective, “See the sky in Rennes“, tries him to “lower“a 15-storey building project.”We build what we want where we want without consultation, like in the 1960s. People are terrified by so much concrete, with houses falling like hot cakes“, gets carried away Philippe, resident.
Some also complain about traffic jams. “I no longer recognize the city on a human scale where I was born. There is no more fluidity in transport, and tensions are rising between the inhabitants“, judge Françoise, 44, member of the Coudurr collective (a united collective for rational urban densification in Rennes). He is calling for a break from projects”disfiguring neighborhoods” and a public debate on the “mad growth of the metropolis“.
According to INSEE, the Rennes metropolitan area is experiencing a “strong population growth” for 30 years, and should have an additional 100,000 inhabitants in 2040.
Faced with these forecasts and the 22,000 requests for social housing pending, the metropolis is planning 30,000 new housing units by 2028.
“The real question is not to say + we need 30,000 housing units + but to know how far we can densify a city without making it impossible to live in“, asks Jean-Pierre Renault, president of the association”Friends of Rennes heritage“.
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“Rennes is also the life of its neighborhoods with a large suburban fabric, where a certain nonchalance reigns. But when the city is built on itself at full speed, we can make mistakes and not always respect harmony with the environment.“, continues this architect, who fears a “monotony of building sizes” and an “loss of bearings” inhabitants.
According to Alain Bénesteau, director of Audiar, the Rennes urban planning agency, the Rennes agglomeration remains half as dense as its Nantes cousin. “The phenomenon of living apart, with separations and the departure of students from the parental home, but also the aging of the population, mean that we need more housing with an equal population“, he explains.
Added to this are dynamic demography and a positive migratory balance due to the attractiveness of the city, which combines low unemployment and proximity to the coast and Paris thanks to the TGV.
“Out of 5,000 new annual inhabitants, 2,800 come from the natural balance“, insists Marc Hervé, first PS deputy for town planning, recalling that densification concerns “a marginal surface, but very visible because on the main roads“.
“It is first of all the inhabitants of Rennes who must be housed, because the inhabitants of the Ile-de-France region only represent 10% of real estate transactions“, assures the elected official. He recognizes that the vertical development of the city “can be traumatic“.
In order to improve consultation, a charter now encourages developers to inform the population before submitting the building permit. “We try to satisfy some of the demands“, assures Marc Hervé.
Faced with the rise in real estate prices in Rennes – +11% in one year in the old – there is no question, however, of stopping building. “Everyone must be able to find housing, especially those on low incomes, because we need all trades“, warns Jean-Yves Chapuis, former assistant for urban planning.
For Ana Sohier, former elected UDB (Breton Democratic Union, autonomists) heritage, “we must re-examine the concept of metropolises“.
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“We concentrate, then we complain about the densification. Today the question arises of better distributing economic activity to better distribute the inhabitants“, she argues.
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