Module 4 Assignment: Peri-urban Areas

NAME OF URBAN CENTER: Barcelona

Participants name/s Hctor Rodal Lpez
Dear authority of the Barcelona Planning Department,
I write to you as a resident of the peri-urban area of Barcelona known as Torre Bar. Our district has
a population of a 2.200 inhabitants. , an area of 176,8 ha , and the density is 12,4 inhab/ha. (source:
Idescat, 2009).

Over the last 30 years I have seen several urban projects for our district, but none of them has solved our
problems. Even the last one: Projecte d'intervenci integral del Barri de Torre Bar i Ciutat Meridiana
[Comprehensive intervention project in the district of Torre Bar and Ciutat Meridiana], aproved by
the City Council on april 2006, has not met our expectations.
First of all, there is a big concern related to our houses. most of them self-constructed buildings with
low quality materials, presently facing structural problems -indeed, a political representative called our
homes huts-. This is worsens by the fact that some of them are located on lands that are not classified
as urban area, but as woodlands. We know that this qualification is due to the intention of the City
Council to recover part of the forest of Collserola, but the solution given to us - expropriation and
reinstallation in the low area of the district - is symply unacceptable to us because:
We don't want to move to a new location.
The money paid to us for the expropiation is not enough to cover the price of the new properties
that you offer to us. We are an economically depressed area, and presently, due to the economic
crisis and large unemployment, we will not able to pay the mortgage for the new houses that you
offer to us. In fact this is really unfair, because we are already owners and you force us to start
from scratch again, when most of us are a middle aged people or seniors citizens.
Furthermore, the urban design for the new low district is awful. It is composed of huge buildings
that hide the surrounding mountains, and so, from our point of view, it doesn't respect the
environment.

WBI E-Learning course: Sustainable Urban Land Use Planning

For these reasons, we think that you should reconsider the project and help us to transform our district in
a garden city, as it was designed in 1920, but finally never developed. With the money obtained from
the regional government of Catalonia (9000 millions euros, money for the improvement of
disadvantaged neighborhoods under the Law 2/2004), all the required urban services and improvements
could be constructed , as it has been already done in other districts of Barcelona like Les Planes.
Furthermore, we face serious problems with basic infrastructure. For instance, there is no sidewalk in
most of the streets of our district. Indeed, an important number of them are just narrow self-built
passages with a lot of steps. That should be solved, so that we can feel safe and move or go for a walk in
our neighborhood.
These issues are basically responsability of the Urban Planning Department of the City Council, and
thus it should be necessary that the planners, architects and engineers work side by side with us, the
residents, in order to design a better place. The Environment department has to be involved as well to
harmonize the residential use with the adjacent forest.

Another problem is that there is a large gap in height between the highest and the lowest point of the
district. So, it is also necessary to involve the mobility department to implement an efficient transport
system for the area.
We also face a serious economic problem, we have traditionally been a poor neighborhood, but the
economic crisis even worsens the situation. As you are aware there are no factories, offices or business
in our area, only some bars and little shops (resource: Comprehensive intervention project in the district
of Torre Bar and Ciutat Meridiana, aproved by the city Council on april 2006). I think the agreement
between the City of Barcelona and the University of Barcelona signed in October 9, 2013, to rent 32
apartments to the university members is a very good idea. But I think this plan should be extended to
more people, so that we can create new services and business for these new residents. I am sure that with
the collaboration of the University of Barcelona and 'Barcelona Activa' (the business enterprising
department of the City Council) that could be done and we could create new jobs, businesses and
opportunities for our district.
Thank you very much,
H. Rodal