Planning Process

Accessibilité (Disabled & Special Needs Access)

There are also particular objectives and a general requirement to provide equal access to all employees and members of the public to work in or enter ERP businesses, as well as the use of facilities modified to meet any special needs, to ensure everyone’s health and safety. This includes those with physical disabilities, such as wheelchair users and others with decreased mobility, impaired vision or hearing, and those with impaired or limited mental function.

Any facility that is open to the public, such as parking lots, lifts, and so on, must be accessible to all. The basic goal is that everyone is treated equally and that no one feels excluded from public facilities, or indeed parts of society that are welcoming to others.

The primary needs are the following:

• Access and provision of adapted services for all persons with limited mobility.
• Wheelchair access ramps are provided where appropriate (particular standards govern ramp grade and dimensions).
• Clear signs at various heights so that individuals in wheelchairs or the visually impaired can readily see instructions or directions.
• Access to reception desks with decreased heights for wheelchair users.
• Adapted WCs and restrooms with a minimum turning space of 1.5m and conveniently accessible basins, taps, and other fixtures.
• Where applicable, bedrooms have been adapted to have the minimal proportions for wheelchair users to turn.
• Adapted kitchens.
• Dedicated parking spaces for the disabled.

Submitting a planning application for a commercial building in France:

• Any planning application in France containing an ERP or commercial building is given special scrutiny. The main application is known as a ‘demande d’autorisation de construire, d’aménager ou de modifier un établissement recevant du public’ (application for authorisation to build, renovate or modify a building open to the public), and this must be accompanied by a ‘dossier spécifique permettant de vérifier la conformité des établissements recevant du public aux règles d’accessibilité et de sécurité contre l’incendie et la panique’ (dossier allowing the authorities to verify.
• Applications for commercial projects must be developed and submitted by a French-registered architect. This is primarily to ensure the complex planning requirements for such properties are considered from the start, and lengthy issues are avoided when the person seeking for approval lacks the necessary knowledge or experience to properly present the planning dossier.
• Submissions will be handled by the appropriate local authority, including the departmental commissions for safety and accessibility.
• In the first instance, all applications must be delivered to the local Mairie, who will then forward them to the various commissions for consideration, approval, or amendment.
• You should ask Local Marie’s Office or its website for information on how to send your file to it via the internet.