The French notion of “heritage urban planning”: a new regulatory tool to accommodate preservation of built heritage and sustainable urban development – PLUPATRIMONIAL

In order to respond to the issues raised by the project, the research team reviewed the trade findings between heritage and urban planning documents. The team also examined a number of «fields«. The sample proposed to the ANR was composed of the 20 largest cities of France, to which were added small towns and medium-sized cities to open the study on less urban territories which are sometimes facing very different heritage issues. The team assessed the heritage ambition of the community through the PLUs over all these cases using an analysis grid, which included more than sixty criteria. That made it possible to measure as finely as possible both the political discourse carried by the community in terms of heritage (typology, methodology, relationship with heritage in the urban project) and the level of protection granted to retained heritage. Over a dozen cities, this work was completed by interviews with stakeholders (territorial technicians, building architects in France, elected representatives, associations, etc.) as well as archives or local press’ consultations.

Several members of the team have in addition been involved in workshops or seminars organized by urban planning and heritage stakeholders (Intercommunal urban plan’s Club (Club PLUI), Center for Studies and Expertise on Risks, the Environment, Mobility and Development (Cerema), G8 Heritage), allowing some sort of inclusive research component. This relationship with civil society was maintained twice a year during technical committees (COTECH – 5 in all), conducted in collaboration with the urban planning and heritage stakeholders. Finally, an international symposium allowed the team (and interested members of technical committees) a comparative analysis of the heritage local urban plan from many foreign countries.

1°- Expansion of the heritage component in local urban plan
However heritage local urban plan has no theoretical or legal status, it shows potential regarding the identification and protection of heritage through some technical and political tools ; communities are integrating heritage into the local urban plan, within the framework of great methodological freedom, which can be seen both in the designation of heritage and in the adjustment of the level of regulatory protection.

2°- Variation – and unequal – local urban plan
When it comes to time or space metrics, the local urban plan is an evolving tool that changes its patrimonial colour especially according to its position depending on the size of the cities and the resources (finance, engineering, partnerships). Plus, the political support – or not – by elected officials. Unequal effects result from this diversity of local urban plans for the inhabitants, whose local heritage can be protected in a city and not in another.

3°- Local urban plan’s position depending on the other protection’s measures: complementarity and variation
Urban local plan is very existent in the legal landscape in order to protect heritage. It shows potential regarding political choices:
-Tampon local urban plan with remarkable heritage sites: the urban local plan surrounds the heritage site with a second protection aera, adapted to less remarkable heritage, which is typical of the city;
-Anticipator local urban plan: the communities can prepare a future heritage protection (such as remarkable heritage sites), by integrating heritage matters into the local urban plan.
-Competitor local urban plan : by integrating heritage matters into the urban local plan, the communities contains (or refuses) the state on its territory;
-Decoder urban local plan: urban local plan highlights the heritage protection (historic monuments’ perimeters, remarkable heritage sites, classified sites) in order to assure a better understanding of those rules

Continue valorisation of results in 2020.
There are high expectations from stakeholders regarding the detailed knowledge of this tool, which allowed a good dissemination of the results of the heritage local urban plan. This is explained in particular by the tightening by the Ministry of Culture of the dedicated protection of heritage based on the new remarkable heritage site’s tool. This ministerial posture creates strong expectations - and probably disproportionate – from the heritage local urban plan. The publications and videos from the program feed the strategic and operational thinking of communities in the heritage field. This promotion for stakeholders is even more important than 2020 will be the year of the renewal of municipal (and intercommunal) councils; a replacement of half of the current elected officials is announced. It will therefore be useful for incoming elected officials to train generally in town planning, basic territorial competence, and in particular in the lever that urban planning can offer in terms of heritage.

Continue research on the links between urban planning and heritage in terms of intermunicipal co-operation and project urban planning.
Nevertheless, the history of the heritage urban local plan does not stop there, and it would be relevant to analyze the 2nd episode, mainly from the angle of two questions: on the one hand, what will be the degree of assimilation (or dissolution) ) heritage local urban plans in the new Intercommunal urban plan’s? How will municipal heritage local urban plans integrate Intercommunal urban plan’s? On the other hand, to what extent will the heritage local urban plan survive the development of “project town planning”, one of the markers of which is regulatory relief, and this while the heritage PLU is precisely characterized by a certain normative precision? The question highly matters in the city centers and town centers struck by a strong vacancy of housing and trade.

In addition to communications in national or international symposiums, and participation in professional workshops (Intercommunal urban plan’s Club (Club PLUI)), the team organized a closing symposium in June 2019 bringing together 170 participants, mainly planning and heritage stakeholders from the field. A video channel «Heritage PLU« (Canal-U: www.canal-u.tv/producteurs/plu_patrimonial) was created to capitalize the entire video production of the project, including a documentary film of about thirty minutes and about twenty video capsules as addendums. The closing symposium can also be seen on videos on the video channel.

The team also produced a book called «Lighting for Action«; printed in 2500 copies and distributed to heritage and urban planning’ stakeholders in several places in France. It can be downloaded for free on Canal-U and on the project's website, same as the “4 summary pages”. A book will be published in 2020 at L'Harmattan (law on cultural and natural heritage). Whilst it wasn’t initially planned, a «serious game« on the legal links between urban planning and heritage is on its way (financed by Angers Technopole): it can serve citizen mediation, for example during consultation procedures imposed during the development of intercommunal urban plan’s or remarkable heritage sites.

Promoting the sustainable town involves not only meeting crucial environmental issues, but also placing the town within a long time-frame, by fully integrating the dimensions of heritage and memory. In the current context of a strong trend towards decentralization, it is at the regional level, through urban planning, that responsibility for the protection of architectural, urban and landscape heritage lies. The aim of this research project is to clarify what is understood today by “Heritage Local Urban Planning”, in order to identify alternative forms of preserving heritage, which plays a key role in fostering local identity and development. We feel that this assessment of the current situation is essential at a time when changes in the law on heritage have been announced, strengthening the role of the Local Urban Planning process. A team of legal experts, geographers and town planers specializing in heritage has been created to carry out this assessment and identify the main issues.