The Government has approved a decree that simplifies urban planning procedures in municipalities with fewer than 2,000 inhabitants to facilitate housing creation. The rule allows town councils to allocate existing constructions on non-developable land, such as farms or warehouses, for residential use.
This measure directly impacts 191 municipalities in the province of Lleida, which represents 80 percent of the total territory. The regional executive seeks with this tool to combat depopulation and speed up housing projects in the areas most affected by the demographic exodus.
The city councils gain autonomy to rehabilitate farms
Each town hall must approve a specific inventory of buildings on non-developable land that can be converted into a permanent residence or economic activities. This list will be independent of the catalog of farmhouses and rural houses that already exists in current legislation.
The actions derived from this inventory will only require a municipal license. They will not need a report from the Territorial Urban Planning Commission of the Generalitat de Catalunya and will allow an expansion of up to 150 square meters with justification of landscape integration.
"It addresses the housing problem and facilitates settlement in villages" - Jaume Gilabert, mayor of Montgai and president of Eines de Repoblament Rural
The councilor Sílvia Paneque explained that the decree allows rural municipalities to jointly contract the project and execution of public works and building construction. This grouping of assignments aims to reduce costs and waiting times for smaller local administrations.
Urban planning is reduced from ten years to two
The text creates the figure of rural neighborhoods for population centers on non-developable land with an accredited age of 100 years. It also establishes two new figures of urban development adapted to the demographic reality of these areas.
The rural Municipal Urban Planning Plan will serve for moderate growth while planning regulations will govern areas without growth. The rural POUM will maintain the same processing but with simplified environmental assessments and less administrative documentation.
The planning regulations may be approved directly by the city council after a binding report from the Territorial Urban Planning Commission. The approval deadlines for these plans will be drastically reduced from between 7 and 10 years to only 2 years.
The executive has already opened the first call for tenders for 8 plots of public property in municipalities such as Baix Pallars Bellver de Cerdanya Llavorsí Rialp Vielha Balaguer and Juneda. These plots have the capacity to build 142 affordable rental housing units.