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Based upon the examples of the Nîmes and Montpellier urban areas in LanguedocRoussillon, this paper examines the adaptations and mismatches between the discourses, sometimes restrictive, extolling the application of often vague sustainable development principles in urban contexts and the practices of local government actors at their different levels of operation during the period 1990-2000. Attention is drawn to the discrepancy between the consensus on aims as they are written into planning documents, particularly with regard to areas attracting the attention of housing developers, and the brakes upon implementation as evidenced from interviews and field observations.