The Council of State considers that the 30 -hectare program requires impact studies.
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The “Mediterranean gardens”: under this engaging name, the Hérault Departmental Council plans to open to the public, on around thirty hectares, at the gates of Béziers, spaces with Greek or tropical plant atmospheres, With a bambooraie, a “sacred wood” of oaks or even a labyrinth made up of vines. At the Domaine de Bayssan, which belongs to him, several constructions are scheduled: a wines pavilion, a restaurant, an aquarium, an immersive cinema dome, a greenhouse, a lighthouse more than thirty meters high, a building of Reception, technical premises … Three hundred thousand annual visitors are hoped for. But the department did not consider it necessary to request an environmental authorization with the impact studies and the consultation of the public which accompany it.
Towards, according to the decision of the Council of State, made public on May 25: beyond ten hectares taken from a natural space, a development must be subject to an environmental education. The high court thus calls into question the green lights obtained on the spot, in 2020: the judgment in summary proceedings of the administrative court of Montpellier which had dismissed the appeal at first instance is “canceled”, and the implicit authorization of the prefect of Hérault is “suspended”.
The project, which seemed to advance without difficulties for several years, has encountered the determination of France Nature Environnement (FNE). The FNE of Languedoc-Roussillon opposed this “school case” of a vast development, but presented by sections, which allows it not to have to comply with the constraints of environmental law. The Federation has filed an appeal in order to stop the production of water retention basins, the first stage of the upcoming site. 2> “two more years”
The Department Council takes note of the decision of the Council of State and is therefore preparing to launch an authorization procedure in good and due form. “The total, with public inquiry and impact studies, assures Dominique Jaumard, deputy director general in charge of regional planning. This will take two more years. Our reading of the texts had suggested that it was not necessary. It must be said that the law is unstable: between December 30, 2020 and July 30, 2021, fundamental decrees have changed the regulations three times. “
Between buildings – for which building permits are already obtained – and traffic spaces, the project will lead to artificializing less than five hectares, according to Dominique Jaumard, who does not take into account the surrounding clearing. He recognizes, however, that, in its presentation, the community did not take into account the areas of the previous arrangements, although adjoining. An amphitheater open in 2021 replaced a marquee, and the adjoining parking was enlarged to reach six hundred and fifty spaces in anticipation of the reinforced power of attraction of the tourist-cultural pole of Bayssan.
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