At the call of the "Saint-Martin wake up" collective, the population mobilized yesterday in Marigot, from 6 am, to protest against the local town planning plan (PLU). The roadblocks erected around the city quickly paralyzed the capital. At the end of a meeting between the members of the collective and the vice-president Guillaume Arnell, an agreement was finally reached at the beginning of the evening.
Saint-Martin has literally been transformed into a war zone. During the day yesterday, clashes broke out between demonstrators and motorists, exasperated by the blocking of roads. The situation quickly degenerated at nightfall with fire starts, in particular at Agrément. Negotiations between the Collectivité and “Saint-Martin wake up” - a group made up of several associations and neighborhood councils - began around noon: the first proposals made by the COM - a one month extension of the public inquiry and new consultation meetings in the neighborhoods - were refused by the collective. At 15 p.m., Vice-President Guillaume Arnell, arriving straight from the airport, immediately spoke to elected officials and MP Daniel Gibbs to take stock of the situation. Two hours later, Mr. Arnell finally received the collective, again requesting the deletion of the June 2015 deliberation concerning the PLU. At the end of the session, at 18 p.m., the vice-president proposed to stop the public inquiry into the PLU and to resume the consultation phase with the population. A comparison between the land use plan (POS) and the PLU will be carried out in order to keep the best of both documents. Mr. Arnell therefore undertook to set out again on a sound basis in order to arrive at a concerted PLU - all the PLU documents will be translated into English - and to continue the procedure for regularizing the titles on the “30 geometric steps”. The collective wanted this agreement to be written and signed by both parties before lifting the roadblocks.
In addition, the association of construction companies of Saint-Martin (ABTP SM) also spoke by press release. “If it is commendable that the Collectivity wants to better organize the establishment of construction in its territory, it is nevertheless important to take into account the socio-economic situation on the one hand and the objective to be achieved in the medium term of “on the other hand”, indicates the institution specifying in particular that the change between the POS and the PLU must be carried out “without harming the owners who now have building land”.
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