The administrative court of Toulouse suspended, Friday 1is April, the permit to develop a project of huts on stilts on the shores of Lake Montbel, in Ariège. A decision motivated by the absence of an impact study on the natural environment.
For months, local residents and environmental defense associations have been fiercely opposed to the project of a hotel park in the hamlet of Luga, near Lake Montbel. In the part called “at constant level” from the Ariège lake filled with water in 1984, this top-of-the-range tourist residence with an area of nearly five hectares is built around twenty-five cabins located on 2.5 kilometers of banks and on stilts, a building reception of 500 square meters, a natural swimming pool, a car park with sixty spaces and equipped access roads.
On March 2, the Le Chabot association and the Ariège Ecological Committee seized the Toulouse administrative court for interim measures to challenge the development permit of the company Cabanes, Nature et Spa, which was issued to it on June 16, 2021 by the town of Montbel. Friday 1is April, the courts ruled in their favor by suspending the execution of the permit, thus putting a serious brake on the project founded by the directors Gaspard de Moustier and Emmanuel de La Bédoyère.
“This decision is a relief and a satisfaction”welcomes Henri Delrieu, spokesperson for Chabot, association for the protection of the aquatic environment. “This part of the natural lake is a haven of peace for one hundred and forty recorded species, of which fifty-eight are threatened”, he says. The otter, the marbled newt and the bat are among them. “The problem is not just the string of cabins. It was planned to carry out deforestation to construct the other buildings. However, this forest is home to migratory birds. »
Equitable relief
“The planning permission is pending. This decision is a good start, but nothing is won”relativizes Alice Terrasse, lawyer for the two associations. “A substantive procedure will be instructed by three judges of the administrative court. And it can take several months or years. »
In his order, the judge in chambers based his decision on the absence of an impact study on the natural environment. In its first opinion, issued in May 2020, the regional environmental authority mission of the Occitanie region had already asked the company to “carry out more precise inventories” and of “produce a map of the issues, particularly with regard to the location of flora species and the otter”. In September 2020, the authority had also recommended “strict avoidance” of any development, particularly in wetlands, and recommended an impact study.
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