Diagram of territorial coherence

In France the diagram of territorial coherence or SCOT is a Document of town planning which fixes, on several commune a scale or groupings of communes, the organizations fundamental of the organization of the territory and the evolution of the urban areas, in order to preserve a balance between urban areas, industrial, tourist, agricultural and natural. Founded by the Law SRU of December 13rd, 2000, it lays down the objectives of the various public policies as regards habitat, economic development, displacements. The Code of town planning fixes the mode of the SCOT at the L.122-1 articles and following.

Presentation of the SCOT

Document of installation extending on the means and long terms, heir to the master development plans and town planning (SDAU), the SCOT aims at the same organization and the same development of the natural heritage and the frame, by stressing the elements which will give a coherence to the grouping thus made up, in particular starting from the use of the equipment and facilities of displacement.

Worked out by one or more EPCI (Public corporation of Inter-commune Co-operation), it must cover a continuous territory and without enclaves.

This document, possibly supplemented by a diagram of sector:

fixes the fundamental orientations of installation, taking into account the balance which it is advisable to preserve between the urban developments, the exercise of the agricultural activities and other functions economic as well as safeguarding of the quality of the air, mediums, sites and landscapes natural or urban;
does not determine the general destination of the grounds (contrary to the SDAU) but envisages a comprehensive strategy of installation on the level of the agglomeration, by reconciling several policies (urban reorganization, habitat, transport);
limit urban spreading out by restructuring organized spaces, in the respect of general stabilities.

The objectives of a diagram of territorial coherence are the following:

to lay down the orientations of installation by avoiding the too precise localizations; it is a question of putting in coherence the choices for the habitat and the activities, by in particular taking account of the possibilities of displacement or the areas of influence of the equipment;
reorganization of built fabrics, by limiting the consumption of new spaces; in the absence of SCOT, the urbanization is subject to the rule of the moderate development. The possibility however is envisaged of a moderate extension of the urbanization on agreement of the prefect, after opinion, at the time of the implementation of RAINED or the communal chart.

The SCOT includes/understands:

an introductory report which contains a diagnosis of the territory and an initial state of the environment. He explains the choices selected to establish the PADD and the DOG,…
the Projet of installation and sustainable development (PADD): it is an obligatory document in which the EPCI expresses how it wishes to see evolving/moving its territory in the respect of the principles of Sustainable development.
a document of general orientations (DOG): it is the implementation of the PADD.
of the graphic documents;
of the optional provisions relating to transport: opening of new sectors to the urbanization if creation of service roads in the public transport; definition of great projects of equipment and service.

The SCOT is opposable with the Local plan of town planning (RAINED: expose) and to the communal chart, the local programs of the habitat (PLH), to the plane of urban displacements (PDU), to the land operations and of commercial installation, to the development schemes and the authorizations of commercial town planning.

The texts which are essential on the SCOT

The SCOT is subjected:

with the laws and the Projets of interest generated L (PIG) defined in the title of the State like to all the regulations given by the State or the territorial collectivities at the time of its development or of its revision;
with the Directive territorial of installation (DTA);
with the directives of protection and development of the landscapes; with the regulations of installation of the national parks and their peripheral zones; with the charters of the regional natural parks; with the diagrams of development of the mountain and littoral .
with the Master development plan and management of water (SDAGE).

Are also taken into account:

programs of equipment of the State, the local government agencies, the public corporations;
occupation of the grounds of the frontier territories.

The Préfet can require the modification of the SCOT in the event of incompatibility with the standards higher or the principles given in the articles and of the Code of town planning.

There exists a particular procedure to return the diagram compatible with an operation being the object a Déclaration of public utility (DUP). It is founded on an examination united between the State and EPCI in load of the SCOT: is realized in order to ensure the setting in conformity of the diagram, a possible consultation of associations of users, a public survey opened by the prefect in the forms envisaged by articles R. 11-4 and following of the code of expropriation concerning the operations entering the field of application of the law of July 12th, 1983.

The development process of a SCOT

The development of the SCOT is the dialog object broad. The State, the department, the area and the public are associated with its development. Its approval is subjected to a public survey the purpose of which is to inform the population and to collect its opinion as well as the opinion of an independent investigating police chief.

The choice of the perimeter of the SCOT determines: the groupings of communes, the new agglomerations, the Country, natural parks, urban plans of displacement, development schemes commercial, local programs of the habitat, inter-commune charters of development and installation. Are in particular taken into account:

urban displacements (residence - work place, residence - market radius of the trade, etc);
displacements towards the cultural, sporting, social equipment and of leisures.

The stages of its development are the following ones. On the initiative of the EPCI:

regulation of the development and definition of methods of consultation;
implemented of the territorial diagnosis;
organization of a debate to lay down the orientations of the project of installation and sustainable development or PADD (this debate must take place at least four months before the stop of the project);
stop of the project and transmission to the services and people associated for opinion (prefect, close areas, departments, communes and EPCI, organizations mentioned with the article L. 121-4 of the Code of town planning and associations of the article L. 121-5, with their request, and others still in particular cases: mountain, reduction of the arable lands, etc);
taken into account of the opinions and setting to the public survey;
with the return of the investigation, after opinion of the police chief-investigator, development of the project and approval;
transmission with the services of the control of legality.

In this context, the prefect intervenes at three times:

carry-with-knowledge;
transmission with the mayors and the president of the EPCI of the specific measures applicable to the territory concerned, in particular territorial directives of installation, applicable regulations, constraints of public utility, projects of General interest, operations of national interest, technical studies available to the State as regards prevention of the risks and environmental protection;
transmission of any new element during debates.

In the event of dissension of a commune, this one must seize the prefect by a reasoned statement. This one has a three months deadline to deliver its opinion justified after consultation of the commission of consultation whose sasine is obligatory; the withdrawal of a commune is subordinated to the favorable opinion of the commission.

If a commune or a grouping of commune did not obtain the modifications requested in spite of the favorable opinion of the prefect, it can be withdrawn; this withdrawal takes place by deliberation of the municipal council or the body deliberating on the grouping and order of the prefect, competences of the prefect being here dependant. However, this withdrawal cannot intervene when the establishment which has in load the diagram is an urban community, of agglomeration or commune.

The rule of the fifteen kilometers

The article L. 122-2 of the Code of town planning institutes the “rule of the fifteen kilometers” whose objective is to encourage the local government agencies to develop a SCOT by reducing their possibility of urbanization for those which are not provided with this document.

According to this rule, the communes located at less than fifteen kilometers of the periphery of a Agglomération of more than 50.000 inhabitants (or at less than fifteen kilometers of the sea) cannot modify or revise to them RAINED in order to open with the urbanization a new zone of urbanization or a natural zone.

Several exemptions and reforms restrict however the range of this rule:

the zones to be urbanized delimited before the 1^er July 2002 are not concerned with this rule.
the threshold of 50.000 inhabitants was in the beginning, in law SRU, of 15.000 inhabitants only.
the prefect can authorize exemptions. These exemptions can be refused “only if the possible disadvantages of the urbanization under consideration for the common neighbors, the environment or the agricultural activities, are excessive in comparison with the interest which for the commune the modification or the revision of the plan represents”.

See too

Internal bonds

Town planning
Right of town planning (in particular for the bibliography) • Right of town planning in France
Local development
Intercommunalité

External sites

Chart of the SCOT in 2007
Pilot step SCOT

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