Amazon was to set up in Fournès, a wine-growing town near the Pont du Gard, to develop a sorting center in a 38,000 m2 building.
During November, the Administrative Court of Nîmes had granted the request relating to the environmental authorization.
A decision which canceled the implementation of the building permit.
Carrier of the project, the company Argan, a real estate developer specializing in particular in the creation of warehouses on behalf of large companies, has decided not to appeal this decision to the administrative court of appeal of Marseille resulting
in de facto
the end of the project.
Opponents of Amazon's plan to set up in the Gard have won their battle.
The company Argan has decided not to appeal the decision of the administrative court of Nîmes, as confirmed to AFP its communications officer Aude Vayre.
In the absence of proceedings before the administrative court of appeal of Marseille, the decision of the administrative court became final.
Argan is a real estate developer specializing in particular in the creation of warehouses on behalf of large companies.
On November 9, the court granted the request for environmental authorization, considering the project "likely to affect the conservation of protected animal or plant species", while 500 trucks were expected there daily.
"The court ruled that despite the probable creation of 600 full-time equivalent jobs and the economic benefits resulting from the investments required for the project, it did not meet an imperative reason of overriding interest".
The court had also considered "that it did not follow from the instruction that no alternative to the establishment of this project on the Fournès site existed".
A 38,800 m2 building on 13.7 ha of land
This cancellation of the environmental authorization issued by the prefecture of Gard, prevented the implementation of the building permit. On this site in Fournès, a small town located near the Pont du Gard, the 38,800 m² building was initially supposed to be built on 13.7 hectares of land. Located near exit 23 of the A9 motorway, it was to serve as the American giant's parcel sorting center.
“This decision raises the question of the future of our territories which are impacted by protected species.
Whether Amazon or other companies, we will inevitably be forced "
,
regretted Thierry Boudinaud, the mayor of this small town of a thousand inhabitants.
The elected officials had from Fournès but also from several surrounding municipalities, had supported the arrival of the American giant on their lands.
“It's a big mess.
It will be complicated to start again on a file.
Five years spent in the village of brands, four years on this project.
"
"David can win against Goliath"
"David can win against Goliath", savors Patrick Fertil, member of the Association for the development of employment in respect of the environment (Adere) who had filed the request before the administrative court.
And who fought for three years against this project in the name of the defense of the environment, while estimating that the employment prospects had been knowingly inflated.
The association had also lodged a complaint for illegal taking of interest by some of the local elected officials.
If the Amazon project is buried, the land does belong to Argan.
There is no indication that other projects will not see the light of day in the future.
The group "is preparing to present a new file, of lesser importance", explains Aude Vayre.
It will be developed "in accordance with environmental standards", she added, without further details.
Planet
Gard: Amazon suffers an environmental setback in court, which blocks a building permit
Economy
Gard: New mobilization against the establishment of an Amazon warehouse
Languedoc-Roussillon
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