City planning authorization: a non-mandatory part request may give rise to a tacit authorization

When examining an application for city planning authorization, the administration may require additional documents. From the date of receipt, the time limit for the investigation starts from zero. The documents payable are exhaustively listed in the city planning Code.

A request for a bad coin is illegal. It does not extend the time for the investigation of an application for city planning authorization. After this period, in the absence of a response from the administration, the city planning authorization is tacitly accepted.

In the present case, a file for prior declaration of works is filed for the installation of a mobile telephone relay antenna. Within the period of instruction, the mayor of the municipality asks to complete the file by specifying on the mass plan the constructions to be built the simulation of the exposure to the waves emitted by the proposed installation. The applicant shall provide the document three months later. The mayor refuses the project and the applicant wishes to have the decision suspended. The administrative court granted his request. The municipality is appealing to the Court of Cassation.

The Court of Cassation upholds the applicant’s city planning authorization and requires the municipality to provide him with the non-opposition certificate normally issued in the case of tacit authorization. It considers that the supplementary document requested is not legal since it is not included in the list of documents required by the city planning Code. Consequently, the time-limit for the investigation is neither interrupted nor amended. At the end of the investigation period, the prior declaration shall be granted tacitly.