The Alpes-Maritimes préfet has unveiled a regional housing plan centred on the redevelopment of a former military air base in Roquebrune, which will make way for 380 homes, a school, a landscaped park and shops.
Préfet Laurent Hottiaux said the department faces genuine constraints in finding room to build: scarce and costly land, a coastline under protection, a landscape dominated by mountains and ever present natural hazards. "These rules aren't an obstacle," he said. "They force us to build better, in places where services, transport and networks already exist."
The plan is part of a national push on housing that the government made a priority from January, targeting two million new homes by 2030, including 125,000 social housing units this year alone. Locally, the scale of the shortfall is stark: the Alpes-Maritimes counts more than 60,000 applicants for social housing against just 66,000 units that currently exist. Hottiaux also pointed to a demographic cost, noting that births in the department have fallen by close to a quarter over fifteen years.
Roquebrune sits on the coast between Monaco and Menton, and the base has stood empty since it closed in 2012.
Picture from Square Architecte