This is what the new Trueta neighborhood in Girona will look like: apartment developments and a large green area.

GironaAfter decades of setbacks and delays, the new Josep Trueta Hospital, which will be located on the southern border between Girona and Salt, is beginning to take shape. The Generalitat de Catalunya (Catalan government) plans to award the winning architectural project in 2026, while the two city councils involved are working on urban planning modifications to equip the land with roads, roundabouts, lighting, and water connections. This week, the Girona municipal government presented its proposal for the urban development of the public space surrounding the new healthcare complex, with the location of Parc Jordi Vilamitjana being the main source of controversy. The intention is for it to be approved by June 2025 and for the Generalitat to definitively validate it before 2026.

The Girona city council's plan calls for the construction of 370 new homes—40% of which will be social housing—amid the trees of Parc Jordi Vilamitjana in the neighborhood. However, the park won't disappear entirely. Instead, it will be moved a few meters to the adjacent plot, next to the Masrocs stream, which is a flood zone and cannot be built on. It will form a large green corridor that will connect the future hospital to the urban fabric. However, the proposal doesn't convince the residents, who, united under the platform "The Park Is Not Too Long," remain steadfast in their desire to preserve the park in its current condition.

To try to change their minds, the City Council has presented some digital recreations that show in images this whole new axis of trees up to Vilablareix, following the stream, in the style of Domeny Park, maintaining the same slide, theskate park and the dog recreation area. renders The plans drawn up by the city council also show the transformation of Montnegre Street, which would become a large avenue connecting the neighborhood to the future hospital, designed to prioritize pedestrians, with a network of neighborhood bars and shops around the new apartments built on the current park. "We hope this will become a reality, opening up the city to the south, expanding connections with Salt and Vilablareix through a green corridor, and providing social and economic dynamism to the neighborhoods that will host the new healthcare campus and a new, first-class Trueta," argues the mayor of Girona, Lluc Salellas.

Urban exchange and commitment of the Generalitat

The City Council maintains that this is the only viable proposal to move forward with the new Trueta park, since the planned development on the park is part of a development swap with the private owners affected by the hospital's construction, which allows for the cost of the renovation works to be covered. Without these apartments, the council would have to pay more than €10 million out of pocket.

Beyond neighborhood opposition, the issue of the park has sparked a political conflict between the municipal government and the opposition Girona Socialist Workers' Party (PSC), which demands the park's preservation and opposes the relocation. Despite this disagreement, the Catalan government, led by the PSC itself, remains fully committed to the project, considering it strategic for the entire public healthcare system in the Girona region. In fact, this Wednesday the president, Salvador Illa, accompanied by the mayors Lluc Salellas and Jordi Viñas, of Salt, reaffirmed his commitment to this project by signing a new document in favor of promoting the construction of the complex, which will cost around 700 million and could come into operation in the third quarter of 2031. ~BK_SLT_NA