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Covid-19 and urban planning projects

Initial response from the ordinance of 25 March 2020

07/04/2020

The provisions of the aforementioned ordinance are applicable to deadlines and measures which expiring between 12 March 2020 and the end of a period of one month following the end of the emergency health situation declared under the conditions of Article 4 of the emergency law of 22 March 2020 to tackle the Covid-19 epidemic. An emergency health situation has been declared until 24 May 2020. The “protected” period within the meaning of the above-mentioned ordinance therefore expires on 24 June 2020.

However, the provisions of the ordinance do not apply if deadlines and measures are provided for by the law of 23 March 2020 or by other specific adaptations taken in application of that law.

Effects of the ordinance on the deadline applicable to administrative or judicial measures

Under the terms of Article 3 of the ordinance, the following administrative or judicial measures:

  • prevention, investigation, examination, conciliation or mediation measures;
  • prohibition or suspension measures which have not been imposed as a penalty;
  • authorisations, permits and approvals;
  • assistance or support measures for people in social difficulty;
  • measures to support family budget management

whose term expires between 12 March and 24 June 2020 are extended until 24 August 2020. However, the judge or the competent authority may modify or terminate these measures, if they have been pronounced before 12 March 2020.

By way of illustration, the validity period for urban planning authorisations, approvals in the Greater Paris region, commercial operation permits and environmental permits, for example, is extended.

Effects of the ordinance on the examination period applicable to government agencies, regional authorities, their administrative public establishments and the public and private law organisations and persons responsible for public administration

Under the terms of Article 7 of the ordinance, and subject to the obligations arising from an international commitment or European Union law

  • when decisions, agreements or opinions can or must be issued or are implicitly acquired within deadlines not expiring before 12 March 2020: those deadlines are suspended until 24 June 2020. The suspension therefore implies that the period which had previously run continues to be taken into account and will continue from 25 June 2020;
  • when the starting point for those deadlines should have occurred between 12 March and 24 June 2020: the starting point for those deadlines is postponed until 25 June 2020.

Furthermore, the same postponement and suspension conditions apply to the deadline imposed on those entities for:

  • verifying the completeness of an application or requesting additional documents as part of the examination of an application;
  • for public consultation or participation.

So for a building permit application filed before 12 March 2020, and for which the one month deadline for requesting additional information had not expired, that deadline is suspended and continue from 25 June 2020.

Similarly, for a building permit application filed before 12 March 2020 for which the examination deadline has not expired, that deadline is suspended and continues from 25 June 2020.

Effects of Covid-19 on deadlines for appeal

Article 2 of the ordinance stipulates that:

 “Any action, appeal, law suit, formality, registration, declaration, notification or publication prescribed by law or regulation on penalty of annulment, sanction, invalidity, time-barring, limitation, inoperability, inadmissibility, expiry, automatic withdrawal, application of special provisions, inapplicability or forfeiture of any right whatsoever, which should have been completed during the period mentioned in Article 1, shall be deemed to have been carried out in time if it has been completed within a period not exceeding the legally specified deadline to act running from the end of this period, up to a maximum of two months.

The same is true of any payment prescribed by law or regulations for the acquisition or retention of a right.

Deadlines for administrative or judicial appeals expiring between 12 March and 24 June 2020 are therefore extended for a maximum of two months from the “protected” period, i.e. until 24 August 2020 at the latest. Therefore a deadline period equivalent to the normally applicable deadline period begins again from 25 June 2020, although subject to a maximum limit of two months.

This obviously applies to deadlines for appeal against an urban planning permit. The discharging of appeal deadlines is therefore deferred by a corresponding length of time.

However, in the event that the end of the emergency health situation is postponed to a date later than 24 May 2020, the expiry date of the deadline for appeals will be postponed accordingly.


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