Deputy may­oress of com­pieg­ne, in charge of urban plan­ning and eco­nom­ic devel­op­ment for Margny-Lès-Com­piègne and coun­cil­lor for greater Com­piègne (ARC).

What are the main urban planning projects in Margny-Lès-Compiègne?

In Margny-lès-Com­piègne, we can begin by men­tion­ing the future “Eco dis­trict” of the Rail­way sta­tion and the Zone d’Aménagement Con­certé de la Prairie, a future dis­trict locat­ed on the bor­der between the town­ships of Mag­ny and Venette. The “Eco-dis­trict” of the Com­piègne/­Margny-lès- Com­piègne rail­way sta­tion is a flag­ship project for our Region with the dual objec­tive of trans­form­ing the sta­tion into a Mul­ti­modal Inter­change Pole (PEM), a gate­way to the conur­ba­tion, with the cre­ation of a two-sided rail­way sta­tion designed for all modes of trans­port, and also to devel­op urban renewal/renovation schemes (hous­ing, offices, ser­vices) in the heart of the conur­ba­tion. With a key chal­lenge for the years to come, the project scale will rise to a dis­trict lev­el that will be both an active dis­trict: with 16 000 m² of offices­space, 3,500 m² for shops and ser­vices, and also a dis­trict to live in with 400 diver­si­fied hous­ing units, a park, shared gar­dens, land­scaped river­banks, and cul­tur­al and leisure areas.

Does an engineering school like UTC have a role to play in the transformation of the city?

Of course! Sev­er­al part­ner­ships have been signed with the Urban Engi­neer­ing Depart­ment of the Uni­ver­si­ty. In par­tic­u­lar, let me pin­point three «project work­shops» com­mis­sioned by the ARC. Two in the spring of 2019 with the com­mon theme «The Rail­way Sta­tion dis­trict: both sus­tain­able and ‘smart’». One was ded­i­cat­ed to con­sul­ta­tion, with imple­men­ta­tion of con­sul­ta­tion cam­paigns run direct­ly by the group of stu­dents, and the oth­er devot­ed to the inno­va­tion com­po­nent. And a sec­ond project in spring 2021 to con­duct a study of the “cen­tral­i­ty of Margny-lès-Com­piègne in con­nec­tion with the Eco dis­trict of the sta­tion mobi­lized six­teen UTC stu­dents, super­vised by two lec­tur­ers. This work gen­er­at­ed some ambi­tious sce­nar­ios which serve as excel­lent bases for our urban projects. Many elect­ed offi­cials and agents of ARC (Greater Com­pieg­ne) and Margny-Lès- Com­piègne were invit­ed to attend the oral pre­sen­ta­tion of the project results in the UTC premises.

How do you reconcile urban planning and economic development for your territory?

Since the cre­ation of our so-called “inter­mu­nic­i­pal­i­ty”, the strat­e­gy has focused on the devel­op­ment of busi­ness parks; this is how the Hauts de Margny devel­op­ment cen­tre was cre­at­ed in 2012. It now hosts 31 com­pa­nies and 240 jobs for a sur­face area of 60 hectares, numer­ous small indus­try and craft activ­i­ties, ser­vices and soon logis­tics oper­a­tors. Eco­nom­ic devel­op­ment must also adapt to the chal­lenges of envi­ron­men­tal preser­va­tion. That is why we have to strike a bal­ance between sup­port­ing our busi­ness­es and jobs, and pre­serv­ing our agri­cul­tur­al and nat­ur­al areas. This qual­i­ty of life is a fac­tor of attrac­tive­ness for our com­pa­nies, who can there­by attract a work­force that is keen to ben­e­fit from a high-qual­i­ty envi­ron­ment in which to flour­ish. High qual­i­ty of life is there­fore one of our assets to encour­age the instal­la­tion and devel­op­ment of com­pa­nies but also the per­son­al devel­op­ment of employees.