A court in Barcelona has accepted a complaint against the mayor of the city, Ada Colau, and the deputy mayor of Urban Planning, Janet Sanz, for an urban crime and one of embezzlement for the superilles or green areas of the Eixample, according to the ACN agency.
The complaint was filed by the chief architect of the consistory at the time of mayor Pasqual Maragall, Josep Antoni Acebillo, and the lawyers Francesc Jufresa and Ferran Grasas, a few days after the prosecutor filed the complaints by the same complainants and the Salvem Barcelona platform. . They demand the precautionary stoppage of the works to "avoid the full consummation" of the crimes and for the damages that may be caused, which amount to more than 100 million euros.
So far, the magistrate has only accepted the complaint for processing and has requested certain documentation, but has not yet set a date for any statement by those investigated or witnesses. He has not issued any precautionary measure either.
In the letter, they emphasize that it is "a manifest regulatory violation of the land law that can have devastating effects", both for individuals and businesses in general, and even generate "accessibility problems" in the addresses of basic services themselves. ". In his opinion, it also affects the public treasury, "because just the concept of removing the asphalt and its eventual replacement" would mean expenses of 100 million euros.
The complaint is also directed, in a general way, against all the members of the government commission of the City Council who voted in favor of the final approval of the executive redevelopment projects linked to the green axes of the Eixample in the session of May 26, 2022, unless they had made a reservation when casting their vote on the legality of the agreements. In this regard, the officials who have reported favorably with technical reports on the superblocks are added.
Acebillo and the two lawyers state in the text that in order to organize this public space, in the manner established by these axes, it is necessary to previously modify the Pla General Metropolità (PGM).
The complaint states that Barcelona City Council approved agreements on "executive redevelopment projects for the area around the new square located at the crossroads of the new green axes", which made reference to Consell de Cent street, between Vilamarí street and Paseo de Sant Joan, as well as other cross streets between Diagonal and Gran Via, an operation integrated into the Barcelona Superilla Program. Through these agreements, he relates, "some of the city's essential thoroughfares are being substantially transformed, if not eliminated."
The letter adds that "a radical change to the roads and the mobility system" is being promoted in the center of the Catalan capital, "eliminating the circulation of vehicles on the affected streets by road." Despite this importance and "its obvious impact" on people, goods and businesses, this project has been processed as if "it were simple ordinary urbanization works, ignoring the urban planning implications that this decision has" and that "required a prior or simultaneous modification of the current urban planning, specifically the PGM.” They stress that the municipal action also "contravenes" the land law that reserves the "layout and characteristics of the road network" to the PGM.
In addition, they criticize the decision of the prosecution to file the investigative proceedings that were opened as a result of their complaint and state that the public prosecutor "has limited itself for 10 months of alleged processing" to "carrying out a legal pseudo-inquiry", asking the Barcelona City Council, specifically Janer Sanz, to report on the reasons behind the implementation of the Eixample superilles. "In other words, instead of receiving a statement as a defendant, the prosecutor asks her to prepare a legal report, which obviously does not give any explanation, it is nothing more than a self-exculpatory plea," he laments. The prosecution also requested a report from the Generalitat.
