EUKN - European Urban Knowledge Network - Urban Renewal Project of La Muette, Garges-lès-Gonesse

Urban Renewal Project of La Muette, Garges-lès-Gonesse - FR

Introduction

An important Urban Renewal Project was initiated in La Muette (Garges-lès-Gonesse) by the social housing company Immobilière 3F to open up a deprived social housing area and to improve its planning and quality of life by an integrated urban development strategy at the neighbourhood and local scales.

Problem

Physical and social problems characterized the urban district as a deprived area.
The original idea of the 70’s urban planning of the city of Garges was to create neighbourhoods separated by autonomous arterial streets, each one including a business centre and publics facilities, necessary for the social living, and rejecting the main road system and car traffic to the periphery. This original idea participated in the isolation and creation of enclaves at different scales.
Most of the housing stock (90 %) in La Muette was mainly composed of social housing, few businesses, few facilities, and most of economical activities were not dedicated to the residents.
Moreover, the planning of the neighbourhood was organised as a mosaic with different functions without links but only few roads and walking passages.
Social problems, due to the pauperization of the population, had emerged: drug traffic and illegal activities were common, vandalism and burnt cars participated to the bad image of the neighbourhood and made conditions of life even harder for its residents.

Description

La Muette area in Garges-lès-Gonesse is a social housing estate neighbourhood built in 1971 and suffering from alarming social and management indicators.

The neighbourhood is classified as a “Critical urban area” (ZUS) since the 1989 due to its social and urban attributes. Its Urban Renewal Project has been elaborated in continuity of a long term urban development policy at local and national scales.

The case study presents the diagnostic and the context of the urban renewal project, the actions planned, the issues addressed, the measures carried out to solve the problems met, the approach and stakeholders, and the results of the project so far.

Approach

The project integrates economical, physical, environmental and social dimensions and the collaboration between partners involved, public and private. It also includes public consultation and participation.

The renewal project of La Muette is based on physical and urban planning measures:

recomposing of the housing sector and its link to business activities park;
attracting more economically productive people to create social diversity with the construction of new typologies of housing;
plotting of new ways and roads;
residentialisation: defining building plots where semi-public and private space can be distinguished;
facilitating construction of small buildings (10 to 20 apartments) and housing estate;
demolition and rehabilitation of buildings to favour a general upgrading of the neighbourhood and avoiding the opposition between new and old buildings.

Results

La Muette area is better integrated to the city of Garges-lès-Gonesse and to Paris Region. There has been both an improvement of the life for the residents and of the potential to attract a more diverse population.

The main result of the urban renewal project is the urban blight processes reversal.

A mid-term evaluation was carried out in 2006 by a Workgroup on Urban Quality gathering architects, urban planners and sociologists.

Beneficiaries

The residents of La Muette are the main beneficiaries of the project. The entire neighbourhood is redeveloped by the urban renewal project.

The City of Garges les Gonesse benefits from social cohesion and from an improvement of the image of La Muette.

Immobilière 3F benefits from a renewed housing stock, better adapted to new ways of living and to the expectations of its tenants.

Resources used

European Union by FEDER program, ANRU (National Agency for Urban Renewal), Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations, Communauté d’agglomération Val de France, Val d’Oise Department, Ile de France Region, the City of Garges-lès-Gonesse, Immobilière 3F and SCIC Habitat funded the project of La Muette.

The total budget is 140 600 euros.

EU involvement

FEDER : 1.415 million euros (1%), demolition of the parking silo which was the first demolition of the urban renewal project

Contact info

Immobilière 3F
M. Patrick Bridey (Director of Urban Renewal), tel. +33 1 40 77 18 41

Project start date

01/01/2002

Links

Visit the Immobilière 3F website Visit the National Agency for Urban Renewal (ANRU) website Visit the project's website

Download more information on the project (PDF, Eng, 0.1 MB

Document type

case

Themes

Urban Policy > Urban environment

Keywords

Urban renewal