What are the future prospects for Economic Activity Zones in the heart of Grand Paris Metropolis? Apur, in partnership with the Montfermeil Town Council and in collaboration with the Economic Development Department of the Grand Paris Grand Est Public Territorial Establishment, presents the work on the case of the Vaucanson EAZs in Montfermeil carried out by students from the Paris School of Urban Planning - École d’urbanisme de Paris -.
Apur and Montfermeil Town Hall, in collaboration with the Economic Development Department of the Grand Paris Grand Est Public Territorial Establishment, have sought to provide answers to the question of the future of the Economic Activity Zones in the heart of Grand Paris Metropolis, by looking at the case of the two EAZs of Vaucanson in Montfermeil. The diagnosis mission was entrusted to students from the Paris School of Urban Planning. This note summarises their work.
The Vaucanson business parks were created in the 1980s on the site of former quarries. Their development has been closely linked to their location in sensitive urban zones - zone franche urbaine (ZFU) - and have the particularity of being closely integrated into a suburban, residential area of individual housing, with which they cohabit very successfully.
The growth of vegetation on the hillside plays a major role in their landscape and sensitive integration, showing how the quality of an EAZ’s integration also depends on the space given to greening in their development, space which is neither incompatible, nor incoherent with economic development.
The Vaucanson EAZs benefit from being extremely well established locally and their strong integration amplifies the value of preserving them despite the pressure on land felt in the heart of Grand Paris Metropolis which is becoming more intense with the arrival of the Grand Paris Express. The preservation of this dense area can only be achieved by allowing, anticipating and creating the conditions for their transformation. The activities carried out there generate a flow of road traffic, producing traffic and parking problems which form the main hinderance to their evolution and development.
Without being radical, the implementation of actions such as reorganising the traffic flow, the gradual re-planification of buildings and land plots and the optimisation of what exists already (mutualisation of services), associated with new forms of governance that include the Vaucanson EAZs and local authorities could suffice to give fresh impetus.
The example of the Vaucanson EAZs contributes to discussion on maintaining economic activity in the dense heart of Grand Paris Metropolis by analysing the conditions for its successful development and proposing ways of improving that can promote their dynamism.
