L’agence d’urbanisme de l’agglomération marseillaise : entre ambitions métropolitaines et contingences politiques

Marseille-Aix urban region is a territory with different polarities embodied by the existence of two urban planning public agencies: in Marseille' (AGAM) and Aix–en-Provence's (AUPA) joint communities. However, AGAM appeared as the planning tool which has best evolved to lead the metropolitan cooperation process. Constrained by a limited study area as well as by the economical and urban crisis which occurred in the 60's and the 70's, AGAM only goes beyond issues strictly concerning Marseille when Robert Paul Vigouroux is elected at the end of the 80's. Mayor Vigouroux seeks to emphasize Marseilles' political and economical weight in the region from this opportunity to overcome administrative limits and become the planning tool of a larger area which better integrates metropolitan dynamics. Then, and in relation to the development of join communities during the 90's, AGAM becomes one of the main actors supporting the emergence of a metropolitan vision in the region. It notably aims to connect the various interests of the different cores of this metropolitan territory. In this context, the achievement of Metropolitan Atlas and the common application for the Call to Metropolitan Cooperation, both launched in the 2000's, fulfil local metropolitan ambitions. However, although AGAM has led the metropolitan cooperation, AGAM's future role and missions (and notably its association with AUPA) must be questioned in connection with the sustainability of a governance mode on the scale of the Marseille – Aix metropolis.