Question 13859 — town planning

Summary

Mr. Yannick Favennec-Bécot draws the attention of the Minister of Territorial Cohesion and Relations with Local Authorities to the policy applied by State services with regard to buildings identified by the PLUi with the change of destination to an agricultural and natural zone. Indeed, he is questioned by the elected officials of the community of communes of Pays-de-Loiron who question the interpretation made of the possibility extension of an agricultural building which became a residential building. Indeed, according to paragraph 2 of article L. 151-11 of the town planning code, the regulation can, in agricultural, natural and forestry zones, "designate, outside the sectors mentioned in article L. 151-13, buildings which may be subject to a change of destination, provided that this change of destination does not compromise agricultural activity or quality landscape of the site”. Under these conditions, the PLUi of the community of communes of Pays-de-Loiron has identified in an agricultural and natural zone, a certain number of abandoned agricultural buildings with an area of ​​more than 80m2 and a certain architectural quality. The threshold of 80m2 was retained in order to ensure the rehabilitation of a building sufficiently large to accommodate housing, all with a consideration optimization of the existing territory. Secondly, under article 141-12 of the town planning code which provides that "in agricultural, natural or forestry zones and outside the sectors mentioned in article 151-13, existing residential buildings may be the subject of extensions or annexes, provided that these extensions or annexes do not compromise the agricultural activity or the landscape quality of the site", the community of municipalities wanted to launch a process of extending these buildings into residential buildings. But questions persist as to the date of characterization of residential buildings, since the process of change of destination allows identified agricultural buildings to become housing. The question for elected officials is therefore to know from what date the agricultural building becomes a building existing housing which allows an application for extension authorization to be submitted. Indeed, the State services of the department of Mayenne, Morbihan and Ille-et-Vilaine, which are based, on the one hand, on the ALUR law of March 2014 and on the future law for agriculture, food and forestry of October 2014 which modifies the regulations relating to change of destination and, on the other hand, on the judgment of the Council of State n° 291017 of November 21, 2007 requiring the identification of a reference date and on the judgment of the Council of State no. 307114 of September 25, 2009, which sets out the case of an POS limiting only existing buildings at the time of entry into force of the POS, the change of destination of agricultural buildings, declared the ban on the extension of the residential building, the result of a change of destination. According to state services, the absence of precision on this subject in the town planning code would reflect a rejection of this possibility, even though the principle is that “everything that is not prohibited is permitted”. As for the aforementioned case laws, they serve as a basis for the various services to impose the inclusion in the regulations that "existing residential buildings" of article L. 151-12 of the town planning code are understood as buildings to be vocation of habitat at the time of entry into force of the PLUi, even though the judge, in the aforementioned cases, only applies the specific regulations of the POS to situations which are different from the situation presented. This interpretation de facto prevents the possibilities of extension of a building having changed its destination into an agricultural or natural zone, even though the building has become a habitat and at the next PLUi, it will be considered as “residential building existing at the time of entry into force of the PLUi”, thus giving it the right to extend. The territory concerned aims to be exemplary in terms of putting an end to urban sprawl through optimization of existing buildings and already urbanized spaces. This is why the elected representatives of the community of communes of Pays-de-Loiron have drastically reduced potentially buildable land, to concentrate on all rural towns. Their agricultural policy, which has always been valued, is at the heart of their rural territory project. This is why the process of changing destination represented for this territory, a balanced solution, making it possible to offer, without contravening the objective of preserving agricultural and natural lands, housing possibilities for new arrivals. This mechanism also made it possible to maintain a certain dynamism in these territories and promote the vernacular built heritage, without allowing the urbanization of the land. It would indeed seem natural that a limited extension, governed by the PLUi regulations, could allow an adaptation of an old agricultural building so that it becomes a habitat. However, it seems entirely legitimate to establish a reference date to prevent successive extensions which would, without a doubt, lead to the eventual urbanization of large areas initially intended for agriculture. But the pure and simple ban on any extension seems counterproductive even though a strict framework, but nevertheless allowing a limited extension, seems possible. Indicating a reference date could be assessed when submitting the application for planning permission and the building housing, the result of the change of destination, could thus see its possibilities of extension strictly limited, as is already the case for the rest of the buildings intended for housing in agricultural and natural zones. The supervision of constructability in agricultural and natural zones should not focus on the temporality of the building becoming a habitat, but on the limits of growth in relation to the initial building. This is why he would be grateful if you could shed some light on the problem as well as provide details that would ensure more fairness between the different territories.

Machine translation from French. The official text remains authoritative.

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