This is a blow for the leaders of Megarama, who want to set up a multiplex on the avenue de l’Europe and who have been tossed around from jurisdiction to jurisdiction since the presentation of the project in 2015. Not only did the building permit for the cinema have canceled by the Administrative Court of Appeal of Lyon, but they expose themselves to a new appeal if they file another building permit.
What are the arguments of the Court of Appeal?
In a judgment of July 7, the court gave the company three months to regularize the project. Two arguments were invoked by the Court of Appeal to declare illegal the decree of the city of Montluçon of July 2016 granting the building permit: it does not provide for the construction of parking spaces – the permit to develop this park has was issued two and a half years later – and “sets an insufficiently precise prescription on the height of the building on the north facade”. The local urban plan imposes to reduce the height of the building from 15 meters to 13.63 meters.
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A meeting to decide what to do next
A meeting between the town hall and Megarama must take place this Wednesday to determine the continuation of the project. “The permit is canceled on two arguments and we have three months to resolve them: a roof height and a parking lot which is itself the subject of a development permit, filed a long time ago. It will be easily complete if Megarama wants it, but it’s up to Megarama
to decide what he wants to do”, says the mayor of Montluçon Frédéric Laporte.
A judgment on the merits
In this judicial aspect, the administrative court and the administrative court of appeal initially rejected the request of the association Un certain regard sur Montluçon, aimed at calling into question the building permit. The magistrates considered at the time that the links between this association and Frédéric Dubourgnoux – owner of the Montluçonnais cinema Le Palace – did not allow him to intervene in the procedure. Last February, the Council of State however considered that the magistrates did not have to judge the sincerity of the applicant, which this time forced the Lyon magistrates to judge the case on the merits. premium
The Council of State gives reason to the opponents of the Megarama cinema in Montluçon
The judicial marathon could continue
“Contrary to what has been repeated, we have an interest in acting, reacts Andrée Rouffet-Pinon, president of Un certain regard sur Montluçon, an association affiliated with France nature environment. We now hope that the municipality of Montluçon will not grant a new building permit to Megarama. It is time to make a new cinema project near the city center and that these polluted and fallow lands are used to accommodate photovoltaic panels. »
Andrée Rouffet-Pinon affirms that the association will take legal action against the new building permit if it were issued. For her, the installation of a multiplex on the avenue de l’Europe raises questions about soil pollution, the risk of flooding of the area in the event of a major flood or the proximity of the All Chem factory. , classified Seveso II.
Guillaume Bellavoine (with Michaël Nicolas)
We contacted the management of Megarama, without success.
A project worth eight million euros
It has now been seven years since Megarama unveiled a film multiplex project on Avenue de l’Europe. With a cost estimated at the time at 8 million euros, it provides for eleven rooms, around one thousand six hundred places and twenty-five employees. Seven years have passed and with them the explosion of streaming platforms and the Covid epidemic, which have eroded attendance in cinemas in France. A market study had estimated in 2015 that there could be more than 300,000 admissions per year to this cinema on Avenue de l’Europe, slightly less than double the attendance at the Palace during the same period. Figures that are obviously no longer relevant.
Guidelines for understanding
firstfruits
In March 2012, after several years of procrastination and aborted projects, the idea of installing a cinematographic multiplex on the avenue de l’Europe emerged. In 2014, the Megarama group applied to build it. Initially, an association with the operator of the Montluçonnais cinema Le Palace, Frédéric Dubourgnoux, is envisaged. This will not be the case.
The project
In 2015, the departmental commission for cinematographic development (CDAC) authorized the creation of the cinematographic multiplex. Attacked by the owner of the Palace, this decision will then be validated over the years by the national commission for cinematographic development (CNAC), the administrative court of appeal of Lyon and finally the Council of State. This judicial aspect is closed.
Building permit
By decree of July 2016, the mayor of Montluçon grants a building permit for the cinema complex. This decree is challenged in court and goes before the administrative court, the court of appeal, the Council of State and then again before the court of appeal. The last two decisions partially vindicated the association Un certain regard sur Montluçon, which opposes the project.
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