Can an extension be built near the shore?

The hundred-metre coastal strip, measured from the high-water mark, is not buildable outside urbanised areas; beyond it, in areas close to the shore, the extension of urbanisation is admitted only where limited and justified. Ten of the eleven communes in which we work are coastal. Saint-Paul-de-Vence is not, and Monaco, a sovereign state, does not fall under the French planning code. The answer therefore depends on the commune before it depends on the project.

Do a pool or a pool-house require consent?

On a registered site, any works altering the appearance of the place are subject to prior declaration to the administration; on a classified site, to special authorisation from the prefect or from the minister responsible for sites, according to their scale. A work at the far end of wooded grounds escapes this no more than an elevation visible from the road. To this are added, depending on the commune, the local plan and the delimited perimeters of monument surroundings. We verify that framework at the survey, before drawing.

Is a storey addition possible on an existing villa?

That is decided on the structure, not on the wish. A storey addition adds a load the fabric was not calculated to receive: load paths, floors and foundations are to be verified before any drawing. Seismic zoning also enters the calculation — of the 163 communes of the Alpes-Maritimes, 133 fall within zone 4, described as moderate-average, and 29 within zone 3. Structural work says what is possible; the extension comes afterwards.

Craftsmanship

Extensions & villa fit-outs

To enlarge without distorting, to elevate without betraying: every extension seems to have always been there.

Enlarging a residence on the Côte d’Azur is first a question of law and then a question of drawing. Extension, storey addition, pool, pool-house, summer kitchen, terrace: each of these works meets a framework tighter here than elsewhere. We verify that framework before drawing anything — which is what prevents a project being loved that will not be built.

A successful extension goes unnoticed: it seems always to have been there. That turns on three points — scale, material, and anchorage in the ground. The director leads the work from end to end, from the survey of the grounds to the last piece of hardware.

Coastal law, the first question of an extension

The ten French communes of our perimeter are coastal communes. The hundred-metre coastal strip, measured from the high-water mark, is not buildable there outside urbanised areas; and the extension of urbanisation in areas close to the shore is admitted only where limited and justified. These are the two rules that decide, very early, what a project may aim at.

Two exceptions change the whole reasoning where they apply. Saint-Paul-de-Vence is the only commune in the perimeter that is not coastal: the coastal law does not apply there. Monaco, a sovereign state, is no more subject to it than to the French planning code. These three frameworks do not mix, and an answer valid for one does not hold for another.

Consent: what the site regime adds

To the coastal framework is added that of sites. On a registered site, any works altering the appearance of the place are subject to prior declaration to the administration; on a classified site, they require special authorisation from the prefect or from the minister responsible for sites, according to their scale. A pool, a pool-house or a terrace at the far end of wooded grounds are concerned just as much as an elevation on the road.

These regimes are not read on the plot but on the commune, and sometimes on the quarter. They are not paid for first in works: they are paid for in processing time, and an immobilisation is a cost even when no one is working. That is why this check opens the study instead of closing it.

Outdoor works, in a marine atmosphere

An extension and a garden fit-out live outdoors, and outdoors here is corrosive. Within five hundred metres of the shore, the atmosphere falls within corrosivity categories C4 to C5 of the ISO 9223 standard. Metalwork, balustrades, shutter and gate motors, window hardware: everything metallic is chosen in marine grade — A4 / 316L with molybdenum rather than A2 / 304 — and the service life of galvanised steel depends on the thickness of the zinc coating.

The seat, for its part, is prepared in the ground. The relief imposes terraced gardens held by retaining walls that are often old; the art of dry stone walling has moreover been inscribed since 28 November 2018 on the representative list of the intangible cultural heritage of humanity of UNESCO. Seismic zoning finally governs the sizing of a storey addition: of the 163 communes of the Alpes-Maritimes, 133 fall within zone 4 and 29 within zone 3, among them the cantons of Antibes and Cannes.

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