Change in Planning Laws in France

A change in French planning laws has made it more difficult to contest controversial new developments. The formal process of considering planning applications in France is hardly an ensign of democracy, with no obligatory neighbour notification of a planning application as occurs in the UK, and a framework of planning rules often only broadly defined. If you wish to challenge a proposed development, by far the most effective way of doing so is to join or form a local protest group. There is nothing French politicians understand better than the trundle of marching feet in the streets! That is perhaps why a law was passed in the French Parliament recently that limits the right of local groups to bring a legal challenge to a planning decision. The law now requires that any group seeking to challenge a planning decision in the courts must be formally registered with the authorities and to have been so registered prior to the planning application itself being displayed on the notice board of the local mairie. Accordingly, unless you happen to be possessed with extra sensory perception, the only way opponents of a proposed development could legally challenge a local development project would be if the group were already in existence! The power of the new law was amply displayed in a recent court case in the Creuse département of the Limousin, when a judge threw out the complaints of the Association des amis Paysages Bourganiauds against a proposed wind farm in the commmunes of Janaillat and St Dizier-Leyrenne on the grounds that the statuts of the association had not been approved prior to submission of the planning application. The court also ordered that the association pay damages to the developer for the delays and additional costs incurred in realising the project. The wind farm of nine turbines is now scheduled to see the light of day in 2009. There is widespread anger at the new law and other groups in France are planning a complaint to the European Court for Human Rights that it is a breach of basic human rights. The law does not challenge the right of individuals to contest a planning decision in the courts, but given the costs of doing so, and the risk they face of having to pay damages if they lose, few people are prepared to put their head above the parapet and offer their name on the legal papers! You can read more about planning appeals in France in our Guide to the Land Planning System in France.