Luxembourg environmental non-profit organisation Mouvement Ecologique asbl has released a statement in which it criticises the perceived ambiguity of the City of Luxembourg's (Ville de Luxembourg - Vdl) future plans for the site of Villeroy & Boch.
The City of Luxembourg recently presented its plans for the design of this 8.5 hectare area to the public. However, the Mouvement Ecologique has argued that "future-oriented urban development looks different".
The non-profit described the plans presented by the City of Luxembourg as lacking citizen participation, having an insufficient connection to the existing districts of Rollingergrund and Mühlenbach, causing too much densification with too few public spaces, lacking an attractive green area and being neglectful of cyclists and pedestrians.
Mouvement Ecologique recalled that the City of Luxembourg is the owner of large areas on this site, just as the State is a co-owner. "Accordingly, one could have realised a particularly future-oriented project", the non-profit argued in its statement. Conversely, the future plans for the Villeroy & Boch site do not represent such a future-oriented design, according to the organisation, for several reasons. For instance, there was no specific public participation in the design.
The non-profit also argued that it was "extremely problematic" that the City of Luxembourg planned "a much denser construction than was laid down in the new land use plan [...] about five years ago". Whilst it recognised the logic behind denser construction in the context of the current housing crisis, Mouvement Ecologique stressed that there should be a balance between housing density, open spaces and green spaces.
According to the Mouvement Ecologique, it is also questionable that the City of Luxembourg is "evading" the provisions of the new housing law, which stipulates that in such settlement projects 15% (not 10%) of affordable housing must be created. The non-profit also drew attention to the "questionable" mobility concept proposed in these plans, citing the following examples of "deficiencies from a technical and political point of view" in this area: "the creation of a (unpublished) mobility concept with an exclusive focus on motorised private transport, insufficient parking spaces for bicycles in public spaces but also in residential buildings, no attractive cycle paths for the entire district and footpaths that can be expanded".
Moreover, the organisation argued that the "eco-districts" concept "is currently being used successfully abroad and in large-scale government projects, but not in the present project".
Mouvement Ecologique concluded that, in many ways, the present design "does not meet the requirements of contemporary urban development". As such, the non-profit has called on the City of Luxembourg, with the participation of residents, to initiate an amendment to the partial development plan in order to "ensure future-oriented, contemporary urban development".
