Mountain area on Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes
Description
Article 3 of Law No 85-30 of 9 January 1985 on the development and protection of the mountain (known as the Mountain Law) defines the mountain areas to which Articles L. 122-1 et seq. of the Urban Planning Code apply.
The law does not give a definition of mountain, but it defines the concept of mountain areas in the light of different criteria linked to the natural handicaps suffered by these territories.
Article 3 of the Mountain Law defines mountain areas. These are "communities or parts of municipalities characterised by a considerable limitation of the possibilities for land use and a significant increase in the costs of the works due:
1 The existence, due to altitude, of very difficult climatic conditions resulting in a significantly shorter period of vegetation;
2 or the presence, at a lower altitude, in most of the territory of steep slopes such that mechanisation is not possible or requires the use of particular equipment which is very expensive;
3 The combination of these two factors where the extent of the disability, resulting from each of them separately, is less accentuated; in that case, the disability resulting from that combination must be equivalent to that resulting from the situations referred to in 1 and 2 above.’
Each mountain area is attached to a massif in accordance with Decree No 2004-69 of 16 January 2004 on the delimitation of the massifs, namely the Alps, Corsica, the Massif Central, the Massif Jurassien, the Pyrenees and the Massif Vosgien.
Please note: This data does not include an identification of the municipalities concerned by the application of the urban planning provisions of the Mountain Law. Interministerial decrees have specified the municipalities or parts of municipalities (+ 5,500) included in a mountain area on the basis of the criteria defined by law.
Article 1 of the Decree of 6 September 1985 delimiting the mountain zone in metropolitan France provides that the mountain area shall be delimited by the following by-laws:
order of 20 February 1974 delimiting mountain areas;
order of 28 April 1976 classifying municipalities and parts of municipalities in mountain areas;
order of 18 January 1977 classifying municipalities and parts of municipalities in mountain areas;
order of 13 November 1978 classifying the commune of Loucrup (hautes-pyrenees) in mountain areas (completes the decree of 28 April 1976);
order of 29 January 1982 classifying municipalities or parts of municipalities as favoured areas (Annex I);
order of 20 September 1983 classifying municipalities and parts of municipalities as favoured areas under Article 2 of Decree 77566 of 03 June 1977 (Annex I);
Decree of 14 December 1984 classifying municipalities and parts of municipalities as favoured areas (Annex II);
order of 25 July 1985 classifying municipalities and parts of municipalities as favoured areas (Annex I).
Attention, several decrees were adopted subsequently to the Order of 6 September 1985 in order to add municipalities to the list of mountain areas in respect of the application of agricultural policies and the allocation of allocations specific to the municipalities. These municipalities do not fall within the scope of the urban planning provisions of the Montagne Law contained in Articles L. 122-1 et seq. of the Urban Planning Code.
In France, two official and administrative boundaries of the mountains overlap. The so-called mountain areas, on the one hand (they are part of a sectoral approach dedicated primarily to agriculture by recognising and compensating for natural handicaps) and on the other hand, the massifs built to promote the self-development of mountain areas.
The massif encompasses not only mountain areas, but also areas immediately adjacent to them: foothills or even plains if the latter ensure the continuity of the massif.
The concept of massif is a French-only approach, allowing an administrative body competent to carry out mountain policy.
This notion of massif is to be distinguished from the concept of mountain.
Last update 09/02/2016
Data date and reference 31/12/2015
Common analysis scale
Diffusion organisation CGET/DGCL/MAAF
COG Geography 2015
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