The town hall of Paris announced on Sunday that it had given up the constructions planned at the foot of the Eiffel Tower in its disputed plan for the development of the surroundings of the monument, which attracts 20 million visitors each year.
Intended to vegetate and pedestrianize the surroundings of the “Iron Lady”, the OnE project, presented by the socialist mayor of the capital Anne Hidalgo, has for months aroused criticism from municipal opposition and environmental defenders.
He planned to cut down around twenty trees, some of them centenarians, at the foot of the Eiffel Tower in order to build luggage storage for customers and premises for employees.
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The town hall gave up in June, after protests from several associations and personalities.
It therefore also decided to abandon four planned constructions. “I am announcing that we are purely and simply canceling any construction project at the foot of the tower, while maintaining the landscaping project”, declared the first deputy mayor, Emmanuel Grégoire to the Sunday newspaper (JDD).
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“The overall philosophy remains the same,” he insisted. “We are going to implement 95% of the OnE project, that is to say a landscape continuity from the Trocadéro to the Champ-de-Mars, faithful to the original design, respectful of the heritage, with fewer cars and more nature. “.
“Very good news”, reacted to AFP Christine Nedelec, of France nature environment (FNE), “but the permits (to build) are still relevant (…) we are waiting for the permits to be withdrawn” .
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“Satisfaction for the time being, but we remain vigilant,” added Thomas Brail, of the National Tree Monitoring Group (GNSA).