Thesis supervisor: Yoan Miot
Urban planning in Europe has undergone significant changes in recent years. In France in particular, these changes have resulted in a strengthening of urban planning documents, making them an essential part of local public policy. The Local Urban Planning Plan (PLU), often inter-municipal (PLUi), is the reference document for the issuance of urban planning permits (building/development or demolition permits, prior declarations), and therefore for most projects carried out in cities. While the Zero Net Land Take (ZAN) objective, which aims to reduce land consumption, is one of the major upheavals in planning and therefore in the evolution of urban development in the face of climate challenges, it is not the only one. In fact, urban planning documents increasingly include provisions aimed at mitigating climate change, adapting to its effects, and limiting the erosion of biodiversity (Chavez Colmenares 2024). This development is part of a general trend towards greener urban planning. At the same time, the changing role of the PLU(i) reflects the logic of "project-based urban planning" (Demouveaux and Lebreton 2017), which involves defining a territorial development strategy, but also changing the relationship with private actors, who are essential links in territorial policies. Faced with reduced public resources and rising land and real estate costs, urban planning documents are a lever that can be used to steer these actors' projects towards the objectives defined by local authorities, enabling public action at a lower cost. However, more environmentally friendly urban planning clashes with deeply rooted and even routine representations and practices of space production. Indeed, numerous studies highlight the complexity of changing practices that greening entails. They emphasize the questioning of stakeholder systems, standards, economic models, and therefore, in general, ways of doing things, for which the internalization of ecological dimensions leads to difficulties and even conflicts. These can hinder the implementation of certain projects by actors with limited resources or those seeking economic profitability. Based on these observations, the thesis aims to understand how the various actors involved in urban planning regulations (local authorities in all their diversity, elected officials, individuals, real estate developers, designers) apply the rules in their work, the ways in which these rules impact projects, and how these rules support exchanges and negotiations between actors, particularly for the issuance of urban planning permits. In particular, it analyzes how the rules actually impact project design, but also seeks to understand their (non-)application in light of the numerous objectives set out in the texts, which can sometimes be contradictory. To this end, a comparative analysis of the implementation of urban planning rules in France and Germany should provide a better understanding of how urban planning rules are incorporated into project dynamics and stakeholder interactions in a context of global transformation. While both countries have a strong planning culture, these are not identical, particularly due to different institutional and administrative systems. The work will provide a better understanding of the practical role of regulatory urban planning in both countries, as well as an operational perspective on the study of planning in Europe and its concrete effects.
Year of enrollment: 2025
Doctoral school: City, Transport and Territories – VTT