The Capitou Nord sector will continue its economic development. In this area of Fréjus bordering the A8 motorway, the Estérel Côte d’Azur conurbation is currently carrying out two distinct projects for business zones set to see the light of day a few hundred meters from each other. On the one hand the ‘’Pôle Safari”, focused on health and the tertiary sector. On the other, an industrial zone focused on military applications and defense in the Bonfin sector.
To justify these operations to the environmental authorities, the city invokes “an overriding reason of major public interest”. Highlighting the lack of available economic land and the more than 90 requests for business establishment each year representing a potential of 600 annual jobs.
Today, the agglomeration’s activity zones total around 350 hectares, or only 1% of the community territory. The Capitou sector also concentrates more than 2,000 jobs for some 455 active establishments.
On former zoo grounds, a Safari Center dedicated to health
The first project concerns the so-called Pôle Safari sector, located on the former grounds of the Safari de l’Estérel, closed for several years. The file is currently the subject of an environmental procedure linked to the presence of protected species.
According to documents submitted for public consultation by the Regional Directorate for the Environment, Planning and Housing (Dreal) last March, the future business park must extend over approximately 2.5 hectares developed within a land unit of nearly 7 hectares.
The project provides for six lots intended to accommodate tertiary, artisanal and industrial activities, with a clearly assumed orientation towards the “health and well-being” as well as “sport and outdoor” sectors. The agglomeration wishes in particular to avoid everyday shops or logistics activities in order to limit traffic flows and supplement the already existing offer in the other areas of Capitou. An internal road with a roundabout, rainwater management works and fire-fighting facilities are also planned. The file, however, highlights several environmental issues. Protected species have been identified on the site, including Hermann’s tortoise, Schreibers’ minioptery, and several rare plant species such as Durieu’s quillwort. Faced with these challenges, the project has been compressed and the developments will be concentrated on the sectors deemed the least ecologically sensitive. The National Nature Protection Council (CNPN) thus issued a favorable opinion accompanied by several reservations, in particular the increase in ecological compensation areas and their long-term protection.
A future zone dedicated to defense in Bonfin
Less than a kilometer away, a second project is also being studied in the Gonfaron sector. This time with an orientation towards the military and defense industries.
The application, submitted last November by Estérel Côte d’Azur Agglomération, provides for the development of an industrial zone of approximately four hectares comprising six to seven lots, low-rise buildings, a main service road, landscaping and rainwater management works. However, the project requires the demolition of several existing buildings. The agglomeration explains that it wants to “reorganize and revitalize” the north of Capitou while developing an economic sector already present in the Frejus territory, historically marked by the military presence.
The future park is presented as generating little traffic, with no significant commercial activity being, again, planned on the site. But, unlike the Pôle Safari, the Bonfin project will have to go through a complete environmental assessment. In a decree dated December 23, the prefect indeed estimated that the importance of the planned developments – some 40,000 m² of floor space on a plot of 7.4 hectares – justifies an in-depth study of their impacts.
Le Capitou continues its transformation
Since 1963, the Capitou sector has gradually established itself as the main economic heart of Est-Var. After the 20 ha of Capitou Sud, the Jean-Louis Center of Excellence (8 ha) was created in 2008, then the BTP Center (17.5 ha) in 2010 and the Production Center (20 ha) and the Mixed Center (3 ha) in 2014.
It now remains to go through the various administrative and environmental stages before seeing these two new economic centers emerge.
Despite our request for more precise information concerning these two projects from the month of April, the intercommunality did not wish to provide further information to our readers after having initially engaged in it.
