Citizen involvement in Habiter la France de Demain initiative (FR0058)

What is the public problem that the commitment will address? Why hold a new consultation? The pandemic prompted French citizens to rethink their living environment. The goal is to understand their new needs and come up with a shared vision of a moderation-minded and human-centred approach to urban planning, along with solutions. In 2020, the pandemic led to higher demand in France for quality housing with enough room and direct access to outdoor (and preferably green) space. Living through lockdown caused people to spurn high-density community living. We need an urban planning model that is compatible with reducing land take, achieving low-carbon targets and creating spaces that promote community living. They must also meet other wants and needs, such as reasonable commutes and easy access to infrastructure and services – the features of a “15- minute city”. Addressing all these issues together will require a bold urban planning policy that responds to one of the calls that came out of the Citizens’ Climate Convention: to raise awareness about the importance and benefits of more compact cities and build a new culture of community living, and more broadly to give more consideration to climate and environmental issues in France’s regions.

What is the commitment? The Habiter la France de demain initiative was launched in February 2021 to promote and support 32 sustainability-minded projects and highlight new solutions in response to the challenges involved in imagining the future of our cities and regions. This initiative aims to bring together and coordinate networks of stakeholders, support regional projects and create an ecosystem able to generate new solutions to the challenges of tomorrow. It is imperative that our cities and regions take better account of global issues, particularly climate issues, without compromising the availability of resources and options for future generations, while also factoring in the specifics of the area and addressing the wants and needs of its residents in terms of comfort and quality of life. The initiative will seek to redefine the fundamentals of community living through the simple principles of moderation and human-centred urban planning. A new pact for sustainable cities and regions is currently taking shape around four policy challenges of France’s objectives for its regions: moderation, resilience, inclusion and production. These challenges must be focal points for urban and regional design and guide the planning of new regions, cities, neighbourhoods and community spaces, all with sustainability in mind.

How will the commitment contribute to solving the public problem? The initiative incorporates local knowledge, with input from institutional stakeholders, civil society and citizens. Giving citizens a more prominent role in public decision-making will lead to projects that are more sustainable and often more innovative, that support better social cohesion and that have better buy-in from the community. Participatory initiatives help improve the quality of projects by better meeting the expectations of citizens, residents, users, economic stakeholders, etc., and offer the option of selfassessment, continuous improvement and democratic renewal processes as part of city-building. 33 The initiative has multiple phases (timetable not yet finalised): - A Habiter la France de demain webinar day held on 9 February 2021. - A comprehensive analysis and summary of a dozen public consultations conducted in recent years on the topics of urban planning and housing and their thousands of contributions. This analysis will highlight areas of consensus and controversy, particularly in areas where there is conflict between citizens’ ideas/wants/needs and public policy directions. - 28 June 2021: launch of an online general public consultation on the impacts of the pandemic on French citizens’ relationship with housing and their living environment - 22 July and 6, 17 and 30 September 2021: workshops held with a group of citizens representative of France’s diversity - 14 October 2021: a national presentation of the conclusions

Why is this commitment relevant to OGP values? This initiative is fully relevant to OGP values as it elevates the role of civil society in developing public policy to make proposals that can help align individual wants and needs with national targets for moderation-minded urban planning and that promote community living. Transparency will be ensured by publishing a shared manifesto and arranging a national presentation of conclusions.

Additional information http://www.ecologie.gouv.fr/habiter-france-demain https://habiterfrancedemain.fr

Action Plan Review

Commitment 8. Get citizens involved in the Habiter la France de Demain initiative on the future of France’s cities

● Verifiable: Yes

● Does it have an open government lens? Yes

● Potential for results: Unclear