The Pierre et Vacances group announced Wednesday that it would abandon its Center Parcs domain project in Roybon, in Isère. It has been blocked by multiple appeals and endless legal proceedings since its launch in 2007, and whose land is occupied by Zadists. The project, worth 390 million euros, provided for the construction in the Chambaran forest of a thousand cottages, shops and restaurants around an aquatic area, in the form of a transparent bubble maintained at 29 degrees with swimming pools, slides and jacuzzis.
"For more than ten years, legal procedures contesting the administrative authorizations hindered the realization of the project. The authorization of clearing, essential to its realization, having lapsed, and the access of the site being blocked by 'zadists 'illegally occupying the land since 2014, Center Parcs has decided to withdraw from this project ", according to a press release from the group.
A "dead end" project
Pierre et Vacances-Center Parcs, which insists on its "commitment to responsible and sustainable tourism", highlights the fact that the domain project "has received constant support from all local authorities for its environmental qualities, its benefits in terms of jobs and income, and its ability to revitalize and rebalance the territory. "
"The group is not happy" that the group throws in the towel, commented to AFP Gérard Brémond, president and founder of Pierre et Vacances, which to date has 25 Center Parcs in Europe, consisting of cottages immersed in forest fields. "But we were at an impasse, it had become inextricable between the occupation of the site, changes in regulations, authorizations for building permits, for land clearing, the water law, the preservation of species, and the slowness of justice in the various stages, the court of appeal, the administrative court, the Council of State. All this was superimposed, it was interminable, "he summed up.