2009-04-04 - Information mailing #1-2009 April 2009

Information mailing n°1/2009
April 2009

We held our annual general meeting some three months ago on December 30 2008, and it is now time to update you on the life of our association during the last quarter.

As now we have a webpage, the minutes of the last general meeting are available there. Please use the link at the bottom of this document . This will also be the case for the information mailing that I intend to publish on a quarterly basis. It will also be sent by e-mail to those members who have given us their email details, and by mail with a copy of the minutes of the last general meeting for the others. Please bear in mind that e-mail communication saves considerable Association resources.

Please find here the latest news about Flaine and our association:
First of all, our association is totally focused on the “Terminal Neige” project, the related new UTN bylaw and the urbanisation plan.
A quick chronological reminder:

• 1st UTN bylaw in 2003:
• Building permit for the “Terminal Neige” in 2007;
• January 2009 the permit is cancelled due to non-conformity with the UTN and at the same time a new UTN bylaw is published.

Four members, (Messrs. Dickinson, Lefebure, Tanguy and Thevenot) among seven, of the board of the association are in favour of a legal action to demonstrate the illegal elements of the new UTN bylaw decided by the Prefet of the Alps. Those members made that request in emergency by the end of February due to the legal time limit to appeal.

I have not agreed to that request, with the approval of the other members of the board (Messrs. Heppel and Lardennois), for following reasons:

• Due to the vote of the members during the Extraordinary General Meeting of April 18, 2007, opposed to a legal action against this project;
• Because the minutes of the last annual general meeting, which were approved unanimously, do not mention anything about an action of this nature.

So it is my view that such a decision needs a new vote from the members. I offered to organize an extraordinary meeting on April 14, 2009, but this proposal was refused by the members of the board who are in favour of the legal action. This was still compatible with the time limit (May 5) to act against the local urbanisation plan. The other possibility would have been to proceed to a survey by e-mail or mail but neither was this proposal accepted. This would have been less formal but much quicker process. So the association is in a frozen position about this topic.

Another very important project is the one to developed a new swimming pool by MGM, topped by a residential building. It is a major facility for the winter and summer touristic offer, it could be achieved by the end of 2010.

An exhibition is currently taking place at the cultural centre to present those two projects. We recommend you to have a look at it and make up your own mind.

In my president function I have met twice the Syndicat Intercommunal de Flaine (SIF). With the political representatives and Mr. Bonnaz (Technical Director of SIF), we have discussed the different projects for Flaine and the necessity of maintenance works for the Flaine resort.

I had various contacts with locals. Their feedback shows that they are very aware of the development projects for the resort and mostly very favourable to the actual projects, among them the “Terminal Neige”. Some of them are showing some signs of aggressiveness about the perceived opposition of our association to those projects.

I hope that you have been able to find the development of the association webpage. Its content has been extended and a publishing tool added. Until now the new publications were mainly about the activities of the association (past and present), the creation of the resort and some factual files. At this stage publication is restricted to the members of the board but we intend to give access later this year to all members.

Due to the current situation of the association, I think that the members of the board should have the possibility to publicly explain their position. So I am asking Régis Lardennois, our Webmaster, to give the opportunity to each member of the board to explain clearly in a “Tribune” his opinion, indicating clearly that this is reflecting personal opinion and doesn’t create any liability for the association.

I hope that those publications will help to push this topic forward and, at least, that our members get better informed. So I am inviting you to read them.

I hope that you have enjoyed this exceptional winter season, in terms of snow and weather conditions, in our exceptional resort.

Best associative regards.

Pierre Tocqueville
 
PRESIDENT 

Web site of the association: http://associationflainoise.free.fr

online publishing, recent papers: http://associationflainoise.free.fr...