Recently, justice has declared illegal the agreement by which part of the works on the green axis of Consell de Cent were carried out, subsequently forcing the street to revert to its previous state. The judge had no other option. If the agreement is illegal, so are its consequences. When the sentence is final, the parties will study how to comply with it with the lowest cost for the public treasury and the neighbors.
This is undoubtedly a good sentence since it indicates not only how things should have been done but also how they should be done in the upcoming and necessary urban changes that the city needs.
The first argument of the ruling is that an urban change of this magnitude cannot be processed as a simple ordinary work, but requires the modification of the General Metropolitan Plan. It must also be taken into account that the green axes plan contemplates converting one of every three streets in Eixample into pedestrian traffic. It is evident that burying the Cerdà plan cannot be done through the back door. Any substantial modification, and this is one, requires a large majority of the municipal political groups and subsequently agreeing on it with the municipalities of the metropolitan region, within the framework of a modification of the General Plan. We are therefore not facing a simple defect of form but rather a requirement that would have meant dialogue, debate and consensus, which obviously has not existed in this case.
The second argument is the lack of reports on whether this modification is effective in achieving the objectives of reducing pollution and fighting climate change, which neither the ruling nor the plaintiffs question, or whether these objectives could be achieved by other means. . It also specifies that there has been a lack of reports on the consequences of this transformation on mobility and the local economy. The Consell de Cent works project has 66,000 pages in which there is not a single mention of any of these points. It is worth specifying that this type of reports are mandatory according to the Public Works Law of Catalonia, since logically it is required of any administration that reasons the objectives and evaluates the consequences of any project. Nor is it a simple defect in form since the reports allow the success of a project to be evaluated and generate debate in the interests of the transparency required of any administration.
The third argument is that the Consell de Cent project was divided into 20 smaller projects. The aforementioned law allows that in special circumstances they can be cut into pieces, as long as it is sufficiently justified. Again, no mention of it in the 66,000 pages. Again, this is not just a formal defect since this procedure sought to circumvent the guarantees required in the contracting of all public works.
We are therefore faced with a good sentence, which highlights a way of proceeding, declaring it contrary to the law. Colau's government had plenty of ideology, authoritarianism and arbitrariness and lacked consensus, dialogue and compliance with the law. Precisely these are the bases of every democratic system.
It is evident that it is advisable to rethink urban planning, especially in large cities, with the aim of reducing pollution and making them more livable. But as has been made clear in this ruling, changes must be made with sufficient consensus, respecting legal procedures, considering whether they are effective in achieving the objectives and evaluating their consequences. Especially in mobility and access to the center, as it is essential for the survival of many businesses and jobs, which need visitors from the rest of the city and the metropolitan region to survive.
