Zero net artificialization: stop paving over land, prioritise the existing city

The city is suffocating: overheating, runoff, loss of nature. Continuing to artificialise land makes everything worse.

Measures:

• Clear objective: zero net artificialization over the mandate.
• Priority for renovation, conversion, and rehabilitation (brownfields, gap sites, vacant offices) rather than sprawl.
• Stop projects that destroy living soils and worsen the urban heat island.

Guarantees: less concrete, more land sobriety; a more resilient city in the face of heat waves and extreme rainfall.

Green and blue infrastructure: connecting parks, gardens, waterways, garrigue

Nature is fragmented: wildlife retreats, biodiversity collapses, the city loses its breathing spaces.

Measures:

• Build a continuous green-blue network: ecological corridors, tree alignments, riverbank rewilding.
• Protect small everyday nature spaces: squares, gardens, brownfields with high ecological value.
• Support community gardens and greening (living soils first).

Guarantees: more biodiversity, more coolness, more wellbeing; a more alive and breathable city.

Urban planning democracy: deciding with residents, not against them

Projects arrive "pre-made", distrust grows, and the city fractures.

Measures:

• Meaningful consultations: equipped neighbourhood councils, public workshops, clear reports, public schedule.
• Transparency: objectives, impacts, alternatives, commitments, follow-up.
• Citizen alert right on projects that threaten health, the climate, or quality of life.

Plan "Montpellier: cool city": trees, shade, de-waterproofing

Heat waves are becoming the norm: mineral neighbourhoods, little shade, impermeable surfaces, unliveable nights.

Measures:

• Canopy plan: mass planting where it is lacking (streets, squares, car parks, school surroundings).
• De-waterproofing: remove asphalt, restore living soil, swales, permeable surfaces.
• Multiply shade and cool islands (shading, water points, less heat-absorbing materials).

Guarantees: less overheating, more comfort in public space; less runoff, more infiltration.

Anti-speculation planning rules: build less but better

Too often, urban planning bends to developer logic: volumes, densities, prices — without respecting neighbourhoods, residents, or the climate.

Measures:

• Mandatory upstream consultation: from the first sketches, with local residents and directly affected associations.
• A demanding charter: architectural quality, summer comfort, full ground contact, green spaces, water management, cycle parking, social mix.
• Local-authority tools: pre-emption rights, land control, strict conditions on public land.

Rewilding schoolyards and their surroundings

Overheated, mineral schoolyards: a health risk, inequality, daily discomfort.

Measures:

• Transformed schoolyards: trees, permeable surfaces, shade, water points, more natural play.
• Calmed school surroundings: continuous pavements, safe crossings, more "breathable" public space.

Polycentric and networked city and metropolis

When everything is concentrated in one place, people depend on cars, lose time, and neighbourhood inequalities deepen.

Measures:

• A clear model: networked polycentrism at city + metropolis scale (multiple centres, linked together).
• Strengthen neighbourhood centres: health, schools, sport, culture, food, everyday services.
• Link centres together: fast and legible connections, not just "everything towards the centre".
• Upgrade major roads into calmed, shaded, safe urban boulevards.