A ban on high-rise buildings in Paris contrasts with Britain’s ever thrusting capital, reports The Guardian.
image for illustration: By Arnaud Ligny from Paris, France – Tour Eiffel, CC BY-SA 2.0
…Paris…. reimposed old rules that ban buildings above 37 metres (121ft)…
The Guardian writes:
There’s a story that sections of the British commentariat have liked to tell for some time, about the differences between London and Paris. The French capital, it says, is over-regulated and over-taxed, nice to look at, good for weekend mini-breaks, but stagnant, frozen, a museum piece. Its British counterpart, in this reading, is thrusting, dynamic, creative, global, open for business.
The contrast plays out on their respective skylines. Paris, after a flirtation with tall buildings that has led to two or three controversial projects scattered about the edge of its centre, last week reimposed old rules that ban buildings above 37 metres (121ft). London’s planning continues to be a free-for-all, with raucous clusters… even in commuter towns outside the city limits, such as Woking.
It would be easy to dismiss the reintroduced height limits as another example of French municipal overreach, except that the narrative of dynamic London v sleepy Paris looks less convincing than it once did..
For smaller and historic British cities – Norwich, for example, which has toyed with the idea of height – the message of Paris is that it’s possible to just say no. For larger ones it’s more complex…
But boroughs, mayors and national government do have the powers to implement policies that limit the carbon emissions of building construction, which if seriously done would by itself reduce the number of new towers…
