Changes to the territorial boundaries of communes and the transfer of their chief towns are decided after a public enquiry, carried out in accordance with the code of relations between the public and the administration, in the communes concerned on the project itself and its conditions.
The representative of the State in the department prescribes this public enquiry, carried out in accordance with the code of relations between the public and the administration, when a request to this effect has been made to him either by the municipal council of one of the communes, or by one third of the registered voters in the commune or portion of territory in question. He may also order it ex officio.
The public enquiry, carried out in accordance with the code of relations between the public and the administration, is not compulsory in the case of a merger of communes.
If the request concerns the detachment of a section of a commune or a portion of the territory of a commune in order to establish it as a separate commune, it must, in order to be admissible, be confirmed at the end of a period of one year.