Urban Planning, Ecological Transition, Urban Services and Housing

Approval has been given for an office to be set up to lead the development of the neighbourhood of La Marina del Prat Vermell, in the district of Sants-Montjuïc. The project will transform an area of 75 hectares (equivalent to 40 blocks of L’Eixample) to create a new neighbourhood with 12,000 homes and 28,000 inhabitants, providing a new hub for life and economic activity, with between 8,000 and 11,000 new jobs.

A new amendment to the Metropolitan General Plan was approved in 2019, along with a new special infrastructures plan for La Marina. The project is for the gradual transformation of the neighbourhood, currently exclusively industrial, through a mixed plan to generate community life through housing, green areas and economic activity. Of the 12,000 homes, some 5,160 will have official protection. There will also be 1,086 homes with services for groups with emancipation difficulties, and 5,700 other homes.

In terms of economic activity, 320,000 square metres of buildable space has been reserved for commercial and tertiary uses and should mean between 8,000 and 11,000 jobs.

Greenery will be one of the cornerstones of the new neighbourhood. The plan sets out 13,34 hectares of open space, with a central park for the neighbourhood to be located between C/ Arnes, C/ Ascó, C/ Pontils and C/ Cal Cisó. There will also be a civic street running in parallel to C/ Foc for 720 metres.

New office to head the project

The new office has been conceived to transcend traditional urban management and define the integrated management of the whole area in line with criteria on environmental sustainability and urban quality. Besides spatial organisation, various projects are being developed around La Marina del Prat Vermell, mainly of a tertiary nature. The office will work to facilitate planning, management, construction, urban development and the promotion of infrastructures, along with activities linked to green spaces, to prioritise public transport ahead of private vehicles and to foster the creation of green energy. There will also be backing for a hybrid economic fabric based around local commerce, with continuity for the economic promotion set out in the Neighbourhood Plan for La Marina.

On the social front, work will actively pursue the integration of new inhabitants and existing residents, with programmes for the strategic location of new facilities which take into account social and environmental criteria, and which promote an active community network and foster a sense of belonging to the neighbourhood.

Calendar, state of development and budget

The transformation of La Marina is a long-term project, to be completed over a period of sixteen years, but is already under way. The amendment to the general plan delimits fourteen sectors to be developed through the subsequent fourteen urban plans to specify spatial organisation. Of these, four have already had their derived planning approved and are currently at the urban management stage, two sectors are in the process of getting their derived planning through and one sector is at the preliminary study stage.

As regards housing, three blocks with 168 protected homes have so far been built, with a further four projects under way to build another 417 homes.

This term of office will see around 57 million euros of the municipal budget invested in this area. Four million of this is for general infrastructures, while 51,87 million is for the housing developments currently under way and the two to be started shortly.