Urban Planning, Ecological Transition, Urban Services and Housing

The Full Council has approved definitive changes to the special uses plan for activity linked to home deliveries in the Zona Franca, the goal being to guarantee the industrial future of the area. Parts of the regulation approved in January 2023 will not be affected, namely the citywide restrictions in residential areas applying to e-commerce and home deliveries of goods, food, ready-made food and other items.

The amendments to the regulation offer more flexibility for activities linked to home deliveries of food and packages in industrial areas. These activities were restricted in the original text, ensuring that delivery enterprises are not set up in contact with adjacent residential areas. There are no amendments to the prohibition on opening supermarkets and ghost kitchens in residential areas, where residents’ right to rest needs to be assured.

Specifically, the change to the regulation affects the following establishments and activities in the Zona Franca.

• Industrial and/or clustered kitchens: the new document eliminates the previous condition of density, which established there could only be one establishment devoted to the same activity in a radius of 400 metres. Businesses of this type cannot set up on sites next to residential areas, the goal being to ensure that the everyday life of local people is not disrupted, nor the industrial area in the Bon Pastor neighbourhood nor the 22@.
• Package delivery agencies: the document eliminates the conditions on density and the previous distance but maintains the prohibition on this type of business on sites next to residential areas. The current regulations remain in force in the Bon Pastor industrial estate but cannot be implemented in the 22@. Transport agencies may not hold multiple licences that include any other main activity covered by this plan.
• Deliveries for food warehouses and warehouses for non-dangerous goods: permission is introduced exclusively in the Zona Franca so that food warehouses can include the activity of home deliveries, providing these are not on sites next to residential areas. This will not be allowed in the Bon Pastor industrial estate or the 22@. The same applies to warehouses for non-dangerous goods.
• Spaces reserved for delivery workers: the previous regulation determined that delivery agencies with establishments of more than 400 square metres had to set aside a waiting area of 10 square metres for delivery workers per 100 square metres of floor space. The new document means that delivery agencies with more than 400 square metres of space must now reserve at least 20 square metres for this purpose, and in all cases enough space to keep riders away from contact with the street. The same conditions apply for food warehouses and warehouses for non-dangerous goods on industrial sites in the Zona Franca, but not in the 22@ and on sites next to residential areas.