Making sense of French planning

French planning is characterized by a centralized framework, but with a local implementation. The central government sets broad policies through national and regional guidelines. There is an emphasis on sustainability, climate adaptation, and regional cohesion.

Local governments create detailed Local Urban Plans (PLU) to manage land use, zoning, and urban design. These plans must follow national goals while meeting local needs. Citizens and stakeholders are legally required to participate through consultations and public inquiries.

French urban planning focuses on sustainability, better public transport, and mixed-use spaces. Key goals include cutting carbon emissions, protecting green areas, and building energy-efficient homes to create vibrant, eco-friendly cities.

Historic preservation is important and often included in new developments, especially in cities with rich architecture like Paris and Lyon. Projects like Grand Paris and Lyon's Confluence, show how history, modern design, and sustainability actually work well together.

People always complain that planning rules keep changing! Everyone has a story about a town official showing up to complain because the shutters weren’t painted the right color.

That’s because Urban planning has always been regulated to avoid anarchy in construction. And yes, rules tended to change a lot – like every year or so. But that’s changed too since 2020.

The latest 2000 law, called SRU, has introduced the principle of “urban renewal.” The idea is to rebuild the city on top of the city – in order to stop constantly expanding it. The local planning document is the “Local urban plan” (the acronym in French is PLU) and it regulates construction in the municipalities, determines the aesthetic rules, the height of the buildings, the shape of the roofs, or the number of openings.

The 2000 law requires towns with over 3,500 people to have 25% social housing. However, it hasn't stopped urban sprawl. Local officials often expand towns instead of renovating older areas because it’s easier, cheaper, and impresses voters more.

In 2014, the ALUR law strengthened the SRU law. It removed rules requiring minimum plot sizes for building and ended the land use coefficient (COS), which limited how densely land could be built on. However, changing habits is difficult. There’s still much to do, like reducing vacant housing and using empty or abandoned urban spaces instead of using farmland for new developments.

In the mountains, things work differently, except in ski resorts. The 1985 Mountain Law stops scattered construction to prevent sprawl. It lets prefects, which are local government officials, cancel illegal building permits through a judge. The law also protects farmland from being turned into tourist sites.

The last French planning acronym is Z.A.N. standing for Zero Net Land Artificialization, which is a principle introduced to combat urban sprawl and preserve natural and agricultural land. It aims to achieve a balance where any new artificialization of land (like new buildings, roads, or other non-natural surfaces) must be offset by restoring an equal amount of already developed land back to a natural state.

This ZAN law was resisted due to concerns over limiting land for development, increased costs for developers, and challenges in redeveloping existing urban areas, which are often seen as more complex and expensive.
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