Planning tools for logistics premises – Analysis of regulatory provisions in the Greater Paris - Grand Paris - PLUIs
In 2025, there were 4.5 million m² of logistics warehouses in Grand Paris Metropolis, of which 80% were in business zones. Indispensable for commercial and industrial activities as well as for supplying people living in Grand Paris, logistics have to address the various challenges linked to its development: to meet the land requirements of logistics transport operators while reducing the environmental impact of the sector. The regulatory levers identified aim to decarbonise modes of transportation, reduce the distances travelled by creating a finer metropolitan logistics network which is better integrated into the urban fabric, by diversifying the types of logistics premises.
Since the 22nd March 2023 Decree, warehouses are included in the category "other businesses of the primary, secondary or tertiary sectors". Consequently, the sub-category "Warehouse" now covers constructions used for logistics, storing or warehousing goods with no retail sales area, permanent delivery points or with delivery and pick up points for good ordered via telematics as well as premises used as data centres. The Urbanism Code enables PLUis to define businesses that are authorised or which need to comply to certain conditions within warehouses and thus to differentiate between other uses such as shops or kitchens dedicated to selling online and data centres.
PLUi plans, throughout the territory, specify the requirements and guidelines defined in the SCoT. Logistics functions are taken into account to varying degrees depending on the objectives which differ from one area to another related to local issues: controlling, maintaining, developing or reintroducing. The regulatory measures put into place in a PLUi differ according to the objectives targetted by municipalities and the degree of the consideration given to logistics issues. They notably make it possible to differentiate between types of logistics activities like for example storage space for urban logistics and cyclologistics.
Zoning allows the development of logistics warehouses to be controlled by prohibiting them or making specific requirements in certain areas, while directing them to establish in targeted identified zones, such as the UGSU zone of the Parisian Bioclimatic PLU or the UAL zones found in the Plaine Commune or Boucle Nord de Seine PLUi (of which the Genevillier Port zone is included).
The definition of an urban or last-mile logistics business, the thematic and sector-specific OAPs or local regulations authorise or even require in certain cases, that logistics facilities be established in diverse ways: "logistics hotels" integrated into mixed-use projects, logistics sites favouring the modal shift and smaller urban logistics spaces integrated into the city.
