On November 5, GMF hosted a presentation and discussion entitled "Fighting urban sprawl in Europe: the story of Lyon," with Hubert Julien-Laferrière, Greater Lyon Coucil Delegate and mayor of the ninth district of Lyon. The presentation, which focused on Lyon's efforts to fight urban sprawl, was attended by representatives from the business, nonprofit, civic, and academic communities.

According to Mr. Julien-Laferrière, Lyon's challenge with sprawl takes three main forms. The first is single-use zoning, which results in separated commercial, residential, and industrial areas. Second, the sprawl manifests in low density land-use, most commonly seen in the use of single family homes as opposed to apartments. Finally, car dependent communities for which most activities, such as shopping and commuting to work, require the use of the car as a result of both the area's isolation from the city and the isolation the residential zones have from its industrial and commercial zone.

Mr. Julien-Laferrière described that over the years, Lyon has seen the richest residents concentrate at the city center while the immediate periphery, usually made up of social housing and old factories, has declined. As an example, la Duchère in Lyon's ninth district has seen the population decrease from 20,000 to 12,500 between the 1970s and 2003. With its concentration of social housing, the increasingly fragile socioeconomic situation of the population, the downgrading of property, and urbanism no longer in step with modern lifestyles, most of the people who could afford to leave the area did so.

In order to implement a proactive policy to upgrade housing in la Duchère and the district as a whole, the decision was taken to transform la Duchère beginning in 2003 and reaching completion in 2012. Supported by the City of Lyon, Greater Lyon, the Rhône Département, the Rhône Alpes region, the State, the "Agence nationale pour la rénovation urbaine", (ANRU) Europe, and their partners, the Lyon-la Duchère Project aims to make this district a more attractive, more open and more balanced living space.

Today the city of Lyon, specifically the ninth district, is engaged in a very voluntary and active smart growth policy aiming to rebalance the agglomeration, socially and spatially, in order to fight the risk of urban sprawl. Extensive regeneration efforts are transforming the ninth district of Lyon from a transit zone between the suburbs and the city center to a place where people and families want to stay. The other regeneration efforts which Mr. Julien-Laferrière shared included the renewal of streets, sidewalks, public spaces, and the regeneration of old industrial areas.

Mr. Julien-Laferrière concluded his remarks with a brief discussion of how the Lyon-la Duchère Project is a very global project: social development and urban restructuring are inextricably linked. In Mr. Julien-Laferrière's analysis, "limiting urban sprawl is above all a question of housing: creating and proposing to the middle classes especially the possibilities to find affordable and quality housing within the cities." An in depth discussion followed the presentation, which focused on the challenge of integrating the immigrant populations currently living in social housing, the renewal of public spaces, and civic participation in planning.