Carrefour Maharepa Project: The Federation Calls on the Presidency Over Legal Inconsistencies
Faced with the growing number of warning signs, environmental shortcomings, and legal uncertainty surrounding the Carrefour shopping center project in Maharepa, the Tāhei ’Auti ia Mo’orea Federation is taking a further step. In an official letter addressed to the President of French Polynesia, it calls for urgent clarification of the regulatory framework and better coordination between urban planning law and competition law.
A Project Facing Opposition on All Fronts
For several months, the proposed development of a shopping center of more than 8,000 m² in Maharepa — more than twice the size of the existing Vaiare shopping center — has raised serious concerns among local residents, economic stakeholders, and environmental protection organizations.
The project has indeed accumulated several major and converging warning signs:
An unfavorable opinion from the French Polynesian Competition Authority (APC): The independent authority points out that the project will not create new economic value, but will instead divert existing demand, shift jobs to the detriment of local businesses, and lead to excessive market concentration.
Historic citizen opposition: More than 1,000 unfavorable submissions were made during the public inquiry, expressing legitimate concerns about the displacement of local businesses and the weakening of independent local employment.
Legal and environmental shortcomings: In a judgment dated November 4, 2025, the Administrative Court ordered a stay of proceedings and the regularization of the building permit, identifying shortcomings regarding the project’s landscape impact and the risks of marine flooding resulting from the filling of the site.
Incomplete impact studies: No serious assessment of the project’s socio-economic consequences has been carried out, and breaches of environmental requirements — including the management of green waste — have already been identified during the construction phase.
The Legal Paradox: An Inconsistency That Weakens Our Islands
How can a project deemed economically harmful by the APC and challenged on environmental grounds nevertheless obtain planning permits, begin construction, and create a sense of a “fait accompli”?
This paradox — also observed in the Carrefour project in Taravao — highlights a deep disconnect between building permits and commercial operating authorizations. This situation creates genuine legal uncertainty for local residents and public authorities alike, as well as for project developers themselves.
The Federation’s Key Requests to the Presidency
In order to ensure a clear, coherent, and transparent process for Moorea and French Polynesia as a whole, the Federation is calling on the Government and requesting its intervention on several strategic points:
- Clarify and harmonize the procedures applicable to large-scale commercial developments.
- Make the building permit — or its implementation — conditional upon obtaining prior commercial operating authorization from the APC.
- Amend urban planning regulations to prevent a project from being built when it is legally or economically impossible to operate.
- Make comprehensive socio-economic impact studies mandatory, to be incorporated into applications for large-scale developments.
- Guarantee genuine public consultation, particularly through public presentations allowing residents to engage directly with project developers.
Continuing the Mobilization for Moorea’s Future
While the Tāhei ’Auti ia Mo’orea Federation remains fully committed to addressing the Maharepa project, its approach to the President of French Polynesia is driven by the broader public interest: protecting the socio-economic balance of our islands, preserving residents’ quality of life, and restoring citizens’ confidence in the consistency of public policy.