Paris. “The reality is that Paris is an under-protected city” : in his interview with Figaroon September 24, the Minister of Culture once again made the heritage of the Capital her hobby horse. And even invokes the World Heritage Committee to support his statement: “ It’s not me who says it, it’s UNESCO”she adds. However, the latest report from Icomos – UNESCO’s consultative body –, dated March 13, 2024, shows a satisfactory arsenal of legal protections: “The property (on the banks of the Seine) benefits from the highest protection regime”we can read there.
The same Icomos report mentions ongoing reflection on the creation of a remarkable heritage site (SPR) “ which would cover the perimeter of the property, along the Marais and VII SPRse borough “. Rachida Dati goes a step further, by proposing the creation of several SPRs: they would concern the Faubourg Saint-Antoine, the New Athens, located within the limits of the Unesco property and its buffer zone, and outside of it, the Butte-aux-Cailles and Montmartre (see ill.).
Only two districts benefit from an SPR in Paris, the Marais and the 7th arrondissement, both managed by a protection and development plan (PSMV) which replaces the local urban planning plan (PLU). Replacing the AVAP and ZPPAUP since the LCAP law of 2016, the SPR offer overall protection to a defined area, governed by detailed rules within town planning documents. Under the control of the State, their implementation is often delegated to local authorities, who use it as a lever for urban requalification in old neighborhoods.
The extension of this protection to other Parisian districts is requested in particular by the Sites and Monuments association, in reaction to the affairs of the Pavillon des Sources and the Monastère de la Visitation, two examples of heritage sites strongly distorted by real estate projects. .
Sites and Monuments is counting on this additional heritage protection to introduce the idea of overall protections (combining gardens, remarkable and more modest buildings), unlike the protections of Historic Monuments and their surroundings, or those provided for in the Parisian PLU, dealing with isolated buildings. The establishment of a PSMV would extend protection to all the districts concerned, and would provide a regulatory basis for the defense of heritage elements not benefiting from individual protection. It should be noted that Rachida Dati’s extension proposals do not include the 5th and 6th arrondissements, where the two hot issues defended by Sites and Monuments are located.
The geographical extension proposed by the minister involves a certain number of obstacles: the SPR is not a simple label, and its implementation requires costly and lengthy studies, involving a public inquiry phase, just like the drafting of the protection and development plan (PSMV), a real urban planning document like the PLU. Once implemented, all of the work, covering the exteriors but also the interior of the buildings (housing or others), included in the sectors will be subject to approval by the architects of buildings of France (ABF): an additional workload for departmental architecture and heritage units, already short of resources.
