Motu Temae: the locals strike back at the Paris Administrative Court of Appeal
The association des habitants du motu Temae-Moorea (AHTM), whose request to incorporate the motu’s road into the municipal road network was rejected by the administrative court last March, is now taking the case to the Paris administrative court of appeal.
The residents of motu Temae are not giving up hope of having the entire road serving their homes made public. Last February, they succeeded in having a portion of the road, on the side of the Moorea golf clubhouse, transferred to the territory’s public road domain. In March, they applied to the administrative court for the automatic transfer of the other part of the road – that on the estate bought by Louis Wane last year – to the communal road domain, a possibility which exists in the General Code of Local Authorities. The new owner intends to close the road to traffic, leaving the Pays, to whom he will sell 18 hectares near the airport, to build a new access road. The administrative court ruled against them, finding that the road did not serve enough housing, which in any case remains accessible from the other side.
However, the AHTM association and 22 motu residents are not giving up. They are therefore appealing to the Paris Administrative Court of Appeal against the latest decision of the Administrative Court. It will be at least a year before the case is heard by the CAA.
As a reminder, in addition to preserving access to the road, AHTM wants the country to abandon its “tourist development zone” project and simply buy back the 3.2 hectares of coconut grove running along 550 meters of beach and encompassing the motu road, listed in Moorea’s PGA as a right-of-way reserved for a public garden – a less costly operation for the country, and one that would guarantee preserved access to the entire beach, say the activists. When questioned during the campaign, Tavini Huiraatira declared itself in favor of this solution.