Regenerating the city’s priority neighbourhoods #4 : La Rabaterie - Tours Métropole Val De Loire
January 2024
Agence nationale de la cohésion des territoires (ANCT)
As part of the Fabrique Prospective, each inter-municipality supported set up a local working group made up of around fifteen stakeholders of its choice. The Ellyx and Oxalis consortium ran four local seminars in each area to help the working groups look to the long term and co-construct a programme of actions to be carried out in the short term around the four themes of the Fabrique Prospective:
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Amplifying the ecological transition of the QPVs ;
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The emergence and development of new economic activities based on nature in the inner suburbs;
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The social link and participation of residents in public life;
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Strengthening territorial cohesion, i.e. the links between the QPVs and their surrounding areas.
Here’s a look at the Rabaterie district in the Centre-Val de Loire region, part of the Tours Métropole Val de Loire urban unit.
To download : rabaterie.pdf (6.7 MiB), rabaterie_2022.pdf (5 MiB)
Located in the Indre-et-Loire region, Tours Métropole Val de Loire comprises 22 communes, including Saint-Pierre-des-Corps, with a population of just over 298,000. Located at the confluence of the Loire and Cher rivers, Saint-Pierre-des-Corps is a naturally irrigated area with a long history of arable farming, and was heavily involved in market gardening until the town became industrialised and residential. The town is relatively isolated, with the high-speed rail link to the south and the A10 motorway to the west.
La Rabaterie is one of the ten QPV (urban neighbourhoods) in the Tours Métropole Val de Loire. With over 5,000 residents, it accounts for 38% of the population of Saint-Pierre-des-Corps. It was developed between 1967 and 1985 on partially urbanised former market garden land, combining rural housing and small craft businesses.
The district’s urban environment is made up of rebuilt city centre blocks to the south (town houses and small blocks of flats), recent, sparsely-densified individual housing to the east, the Loire flood protection dyke to the north, and an old urban fabric combining individual housing and market garden plots in strips to the west. The district comprises 45 4- to 5-storey buildings and a dozen 15-storey towers on large blocks (37,500 m² compared with an average of 12,000 m² in the rebuilt town centre). It accounts for 60% of the social housing stock in the municipality. La Rabaterie has 2,500 of the 4,000 trees planted in Saint-Pierre-des-Corps, making it a green lung for the town. The district is home to the Henri Wallon school group, the Jacques Decour secondary school, the Marceau-Courier school complex and the Jacques Prévert nursery school. As part of the national urban renewal programme (PNRU) run by Anru, the urban renewal of La Rabaterie from 2004 to 2014 focused on the Petit Mail, the Aubrière tower blocks and the Grands Arbres residence.
The current project, as part of the new national urban renewal programme (NPNRU), was the subject of an agreement signed in 2020 by the metropolis, the municipality, the prefecture, Anru, the social landlords and Action logement. As a continuation of the PNRU, the project involves the shopping centre, the redevelopment of green spaces, playgrounds and pathways in the eastern sector (Grand Mail, northern part of Place des Cosmonautes), the transformation of the football pitch into a green public space, as well as the redevelopment of Impasse Paul-Louis Courier and the creation of a pedestrian and cycle path between Rue Blanqui and the foot of the Loire embankment.
Participants in the Fabrique Prospective identified the Talon farm as one of the assets of the Rabaterie district. Located in a flood zone, it is a small, dilapidated and unoccupied house belonging to the local authority.
As part of the Fabrique Prospective, Emmanuel François, the mayor of Saint-Pierre-des-Corps, brought together around twenty local stakeholders (decentralised government departments, social landlords, the town planning agency, local associations, municipal and inter-municipal departments, the citizens’ council, the LPO Centre Val de Loire, the Centre Val de Loire regional biodiversity agency, etc.). Their idealised vision of the local authority by 2035, using nature as a lever for the ecological transition, social cohesion, economic development and territorial cohesion of the Rabaterie district, comprises four areas:
1. A green neighbourhood:
all the roofs and balconies have been greened. Green street workshops82 are being organised in the district. The towers, and in particular the Aubrière tower, have become places for observing nature;
2. a productive neighbourhood:
the Rabaterie is a food-producing and educational resource centre that echoes the market-gardening heritage of Saint-Pierre-des-Corps. The main mall has become a production area, and gardens have been created at the foot of the buildings to grow fruit trees, timber, herbs, medicinal plants, etc. All the school playgrounds have been transformed into islands of coolness and are open to residents outside school hours. The teaching teams practise outdoor education, which means using nature as a learning tool;
3. a district criss-crossed by soft mobility:
the town of Saint-Pierre-des-Corps encourages soft mobility, particularly in the Rabaterie district. A greenway links the Loire, Saint-Pierre-des-Corps station and the Cher. The route of the Loire by bike passes through the Rabaterie district, which has encouraged the development of accommodation and restaurants. Safe access to the Loire has been created for local residents, and the quays have been landscaped (with plants, signs to raise awareness of biodiversity, etc.);
4. La Rabaterie, a space for experimentation:
the Talon farm has been transformed into a nature centre and a micro-farm school, offering training and work experience.
To translate this idealised vision into reality, the local working group in Saint-Pierre-des-Corps has identified three key areas for action:
1. greening the neighbourhood:
planting mini-forests to create islands of coolness; greening school playgrounds;
2. develop outdoor education:
mobilise teaching teams; identify and develop sites; experiment with a pilot class; join the educational areas approach (see box below);
3. encourage soft mobility:
organise a stage of the cycle festival; organise events to raise awareness of the issues surrounding soft mobility and nature in the district; launch a feasibility study into access to the Loire from the district.