Review land use planning

Better use of industrial and commercial areas!...

The numbers are in!...

Every 10 years we abandon the equivalent of the surface area of a department to the construction and expansion of our cities!...Can we continue like this!...Our thirst for urban expansion blocks and concretes over natural environments and wetlands essential to rural/urban balance!...Green areas and "real" countryside are always pushed further away!...Instead of thinking about "making profitable" and "optimizing" the areas already taken, cities "eat up" and "exclude" new farmers every year and drive city dwellers away from city centers...Today our commercial zones are poorly designed and no longer meet the requirements of urban and societal integration!... Yet controlling their expansion is VITAL!...Even more serious is the ABANDONMENT of tens or even hundreds of hectares DEEMED dead, because they are MORE economically ATTRACTIVE!... 

The permanent attractiveness of these "superstores" and their competition is more and more visible!...they leave visual traces which are real "urban sores"!...In many situations, it is ONLY the transport networks and the exits from the main roads (Link: metro + bus OR metro + bus + tramway) which favor the future of a commercial place!...AGENDAS 21 and 26000 Standards MUST REALLY take into account "the sharing" of natural resources (land) and the SUSTAINABLE future of their commercial exploitation!...

We must reoccupy the less attractive "old areas" and give them a second economic lease of life!...We must stop the endless expansion of these inhuman places!...We must create areas with the lowest possible impact per square meter!...We must force businesses to move closer to city centers!...We must develop urban networks and "networked home" deliveries!...We must very strongly LIMIT the DEAD areas represented by parking lots!...

We must keep and maintain these green areas on the outskirts of our cities TO SERIOUSLY develop professionals in agricultural, arboricultural, horticultural and market gardening production!... Because their nutritional, social, human and relational impact IS ESSENTIAL!... The development of commerce today and tomorrow as well as its close relationship with its customer will ALSO depend on their local geographical integration and the return of the "pleasure" of commerce!...

So let's get back to REAL LOCAL TRADE!...

ALAIN BAERISWYL