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INTERVIEW OF MR. FIKRAT TO the NEWSPAPER the ECONOMIST:

“Marrakech does not have the urban documents which it deserves”
Discussion with Abdelouahed Fikrat, director of the urban Agency

· Plans of town-planning, re-examined as of this year
· The slowness of production of the plans in fact of the fragile and unrealizable documents

For the new owner of the agency, a main effort must be provided, initially to preserve the capital of the area and then to rebalance the division of the richnesses. The solution would be side of the satellite towns with the proviso of giving them a vocation. The Economist: Which diagram for a city like Marrakech in full expansion and who knows a real explosion?
- Abdelouahed Fikrat: It is a little more complex. Marrakech has a directing diagram elaborate in the years 1990. This one gave place to several plans of installation, by sector and zone which all are not approved. Each plan, advanced or at all, has a degree of legitimacy. Ménara Guéliz is the zone which poses the most problems. But overall, the town of Marrakech does not have yet the urban documents which it deserves. And it is there all the work which awaits the urban Agency. It is a question of taking again the majority of the urban documents of the area, to re-examine those which become null and void and the réélaborer. Others are to be brought up to date. We launch the studies this year.
Now, there is another more administrative factor quite as important this time. It is the factor time on the level of the production of these documents. Indeed, slowness in the system of production of these documents - sometimes several years for the plans of installation in fact of the documents which are born fragile and unrealizable.

- Two months after your nomination with the head of the urban Agency, did you identify an action plan?
- It is too much early. There is not more diagnosis than of measurements. They are rather reports. Marrakech is a city which evolves/moves quickly and in a spectacular way. Unfortunately, this development is not done without problems. It needs to be better channeled.
The second report is the involuntary shade which this same development at zones bordering makes, in the periphery. I quote in example, the back-country of Marrakech in areas like Haouz. In fact, the division of the richnesses is unbalanced. Our work will be to seek this balance. It will be necessary to drain real investments in this back-country which, finally, is the major asset of the area.
Another report, the threatened zones, is by the urban pressure or the phenomenon of the speculations like the Palm plantation or the médina. It will be necessary to identify the factors of risks and to reduce them to the maximum.

- One has the impression that Marrakech becomes an unbounded city…
- Precisely, there is evil to identify the physical limits of Marrakech. If one could limit contours of the city with a red pen, on a plan, of course, it would be ideal. Reality today is that the city extends with a strong expansion. It becomes urgent to fix the limits with a kind of green or even concreted belt (roads)… and to go from them beyond. I.e. to develop the “characteristic city” of the centers bordering.

- You want to speak about the satellite towns. Do some estimate that they will be ghettos cities?
- I do not think. It is a manner of seeing which stigmatizes the project. It is necessary to make a difference between districts dormitories and satellite towns. Such as it is defined by the ministry for the Habitat and Town planning, they are cities with the maximum of infrastructures, of equipment (schools, dispensary, mosque, house of young people, sports ground…) and of the zones of activity. I.e. cities where it is necessary of dwelling, work and leisures. There are zones suited to that like that of Tamensort, where work has been just launched. Others will have need for a main effort on behalf of the authorities and local communities to make true satellite towns of them

- How, precisely, to balance and attract the real investors in the zones bordering and to develop them from the economic point of view?
- It is there or the State must intervene. When we have multiple small islands of richnesses without any economic incidence on the inhabitants, one must put questions. The role of the State is to give vocations to zones or areas.
The private investor is opportunist. And it is completely normal. With us to direct it towards other areas carrying potential. But, with us also to channel this potential. Tamsloht, for example, in the province of Haouz, deserves a true town-planning. This area, with less than 20 kilometers of Marrakech, could perfectly illustrate the concept of satellite town with tourist and artisanal vocation.

- Let us return in Marrakech city and particularly in Ménara Guéliz. A zone which causes many debates besides. Which will be the choice: R+3 or R+5?
- There is no generalization, it is by zone and sector. In the districts of Ménara and Guéliz, there are what is called transferred zones. They are generally zones villas where the plan of installation envisaged of R+3 or R+5 according to several criteria. It is not accepted by everyone. There are two contradictory currents: those which militate for the safeguarding of the zones villas and those which estimate that the change in zone buildings would make it possible to meet the need for growth of the city. The plan of Ménara Guéliz, which is not approved yet, will be among those which one will seriously re-examine as of this year.
The objective is to keep the harmony of Marrakech. Because, finally, it is what the capital of Marrakech? Sight on the High Atlas, its médina and its people. It is not necessary that that is wasted by other concerns.

- You will also re-examine the system of exemption?
- The urban Agency is only one partner among others in the commission AD Doc. which authorizes these exemptions. It is very difficult to make an arbitration between the lawful application and flexibility. All the partners of this commission have only one concern: to make well for the city. But up to which point, can one go?
Nonagricultural vocation

The nonagricultural vocation of the grounds is one of the procedures which makes squeak the teeth with Marrakech. It is a device set up the shortly after independence to recover the agricultural land of the colonists. The procedure becomes a brake the abroads interested by agricultural land, that it is for residences or small projects of investments. “It is a device called to be re-examined”, estimates Fikrat which moderates however: “Certainly, that requires more administrative efforts. Many is not discouraged by this additional procedure”.

Remarks collected by
Badra BERRISSOULE

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