Grand Paris


The Métropole du Grand Paris is an administrative structure for cooperation covering the City of Paris and its nearest surrounding suburbs. The métropole came into existence on January 1, 2016 and comprises 131 communes, including the City of Paris, all 123 communes in the surrounding inner-suburban departments of the Petite Couronne, plus seven communes in two of the outer-suburban departments, including the communes of Argenteuil in Val-d'Oise, and Paray-Vieille-Poste in Essonne, the latter of which covers part of Orly Airport. Part of the métropole comprised the Seine department, which existed from 1929 to 1968. Grand Paris covers 814 square kilometers and has a population of 7 million.
The Métropole is administered by a Metropolitan Council of 210 members, not directly elected, but chosen by the councils of the member Communes. Its responsibilities include urban planning, housing, and protection of the environment.
The Métropole du Grand Paris should not be confused with the Grand Paris Express, a new transportation system being developed independently to connect the Departments in the Paris suburbs.

History

The idea of Greater Paris was originally proposed by former French President Nicolas Sarkozy as "a new global plan for the Paris metropolitan region" It first led to a new transportation master plan for the Paris region and to plans to develop several areas around Paris. The "Métropole du Grand Paris" was defined by the law of 27 January 2014 on the modernization of public territorial action and affirmation of cities as part of Act III of decentralization. The plans were considerably modified in December 2015, and the passage into action in two competences, economic development and protection of the environment, was delayed from 2016 to 2017.
The plan was first announced on 17 September 2007 during the inauguration of "La Cité de l'architecture et du patrimoine", when Sarkozy declared his intent to create a "new comprehensive development project for Greater Paris". The project was organized by the French state, with the Minister of Culture and Communication charged with coordinating the consultation process.
In 2008 an international urban and architectural competition for the future development of metropolitan Paris was launched. Ten teams gathering architects, urban planners, geographers, landscape architects will offer their vision for building a Paris metropolis of the 21st century in the post-Kyoto era and make a prospective diagnosis for Paris and its suburbs that will define future developments in Greater Paris for the next 40 years.
The architects leading the ten multi-disciplinary teams were: Jean Nouvel, Christian de Portzamparc, Antoine Grumbach, Roland Castro, Yves Lion, Djamel Klouche, Richard Rogers, Bernardo Secchi, Paola Vigano, Finn Geipel, Giulia Andi, and Winy Maas.
Early versions of the plan proposed reforms to the local government structure of the Paris region by creating an integrated urban community encompassing the City of Paris and the surrounding Petite Couronne, However, these were largely abandoned due to strong opposition from the socialist Mayor of Paris, Bertrand Delanoë, and the socialist head of the Île de France region, Jean-Paul Huchon.

Objectives

The original plan for the Métropole declared these objectives; "The Métropole of Grand Paris is established in order to define and implement metropolitan action to improve the quality of life of its residents, reduce inequalities between regions within it, to develop an urban, social and economic sustainability model, tools to improve attractiveness and competitiveness for the benefit of the entire national territory. The Métropole of Grand Paris is developing a metropolitan project. The residents are associated with its development according to the guidelines determined by the metropolitan council as laid down by the development council.
This metropolitan project defines the general guidelines of the policy pursued by the Métropole of Grand Paris. It forms part of the implementation of the overall scheme of the Ile-de-France region. It includes a general, social, economic and environmental analysis of the metropolitan area, the strategic guidelines for the development of the metropolis as well as priority areas for intervention. The Metro project can be developed with the support of the Land and Technical Agency of the Paris Region, the International Workshop on Greater Paris, the Urban Planning Agencies and any other useful body. "

Transportation

Independently to the process described above, a position of Minister for Le Grand Paris was created and Christian Blanc was appointed to occupy it. Blanc and his team prepared a transportation plan, announced on April 29, 2009. The Île-de-France region had already published its own transportation plan. Later, the architects of the consultation joined together to present a third transportation plan. After much negotiation, a compromise between the national government the Île-de-France regional government was announced in January 2011 and the final plan subsequently approved.
The transport plan will be carried out in ten years, at a cost of 35 billion euros funded by the state, local governments and new debt. An important part of the project is a driverless subway linking important business and residential poles such as Versailles and the Charles de Gaulle airport but also banlieues like Montfermeil and Clichy-sous-Bois through a figure-eight track 140 km long and operating 24-hour, which will alone cost 21 billion euros. Another 14 billion euros will be spent in the extension and re-equipment of existing metro, regional and suburban lines.

Criticism

The way Le Grand Paris has been handled was criticized by the architects themselves, especially by Jean Nouvel who wrote several virulent editorials against the Minister in charge of Le Grand Paris until June 2010, Christian Blanc.
Politically, the President of the Île-de-France region, Jean-Paul Huchon and the Mayor of Paris, Bertrand Delanoë, both members of the French Socialist Party opposed the initiatives taken by the national government, which they said were in contradiction with the devolution of urban planning matters to local governments. In October 2011, Delanoë stated that the President "is trying to claim for himself an urban dynamic begun long ago by the local governments". Although Huchon had reached an agreement with the national government earlier in the year on the transportation network, he also declared that Grand Paris "is not a generic term to cover everything that is going on on the territory of the Île-de-France region and even less a national certificate created to relabel local policies that were already in existence." Political opposition was also strong from the Green Party, led in the Île-de-France region by Cécile Duflot.

Communes

The Métropole du Grand Paris consists of the following 131 communes:
  1. Ablon-sur-Seine
  2. Alfortville
  3. Antony
  4. Arcueil
  5. Argenteuil
  6. Asnières-sur-Seine
  7. Athis-Mons
  8. Aubervilliers
  9. Aulnay-sous-Bois
  10. Bagneux
  11. Bagnolet
  12. Le Blanc-Mesnil
  13. Bobigny
  14. Bois-Colombes
  15. Boissy-Saint-Léger
  16. Bondy
  17. Bonneuil-sur-Marne
  18. Boulogne-Billancourt
  19. Le Bourget
  20. Bourg-la-Reine
  21. Bry-sur-Marne
  22. Cachan
  23. Champigny-sur-Marne
  24. Charenton-le-Pont
  25. Châtenay-Malabry
  26. Châtillon
  27. Chaville
  28. Chennevières-sur-Marne
  29. Chevilly-Larue
  30. Choisy-le-Roi
  31. Clamart
  32. Clichy
  33. Clichy-sous-Bois
  34. Colombes
  35. Coubron
  36. Courbevoie
  37. La Courneuve
  38. Créteil
  39. Drancy
  40. Dugny
  41. Épinay-sur-Seine
  42. Fontenay-aux-Roses
  43. Fontenay-sous-Bois
  44. Fresnes
  45. Gagny
  46. Garches
  47. La Garenne-Colombes
  48. Gennevilliers
  49. Gentilly
  50. Gournay-sur-Marne
  51. L'Haÿ-les-Roses
  52. L'Île-Saint-Denis
  53. Issy-les-Moulineaux
  54. Ivry-sur-Seine
  55. Joinville-le-Pont
  56. Juvisy-sur-Orge
  57. Le Kremlin-Bicêtre
  58. Les Lilas
  59. Levallois-Perret
  60. Limeil-Brévannes
  61. Livry-Gargan
  62. Maisons-Alfort
  63. Malakoff
  64. Mandres-les-Roses
  65. Marnes-la-Coquette
  66. Marolles-en-Brie
  67. Meudon
  68. Montfermeil
  69. Montreuil
  70. Montrouge
  71. Morangis
  72. Nanterre
  73. Neuilly-Plaisance
  74. Neuilly-sur-Marne
  75. Neuilly-sur-Seine
  76. Nogent-sur-Marne
  77. Noiseau
  78. Noisy-le-Grand
  79. Noisy-le-Sec
  80. Orly
  81. Ormesson-sur-Marne
  82. Pantin
  83. Paray-Vieille-Poste
  84. Paris
  85. Les Pavillons-sous-Bois
  86. Périgny
  87. Le Perreux-sur-Marne
  88. Pierrefitte-sur-Seine
  89. Le Plessis-Robinson
  90. Le Plessis-Trévise
  91. Le Pré-Saint-Gervais
  92. Puteaux
  93. La Queue-en-Brie
  94. Le Raincy
  95. Romainville
  96. Rosny-sous-Bois
  97. Rueil-Malmaison
  98. Rungis
  99. Saint-Cloud
  100. Saint-Denis
  101. Saint-Mandé
  102. Saint-Maur-des-Fossés
  103. Saint-Maurice
  104. Saint-Ouen-sur-Seine
  105. Santeny
  106. Savigny-sur-Orge
  107. Sceaux
  108. Sevran
  109. Sèvres
  110. Stains
  111. Sucy-en-Brie
  112. Suresnes
  113. Thiais
  114. Tremblay-en-France
  115. Valenton
  116. Vanves
  117. Vaucresson
  118. Vaujours
  119. Villecresnes
  120. Ville-d'Avray
  121. Villejuif
  122. Villemomble
  123. Villeneuve-la-Garenne
  124. Villeneuve-le-Roi
  125. Villeneuve-Saint-Georges
  126. Villepinte
  127. Villetaneuse
  128. Villiers-sur-Marne
  129. Vincennes
  130. Viry-Châtillon
  131. Vitry-sur-Seine