Collboni saves with Junts the plan to regulate commerce in Ciutat Vella

BarcelonaJaume Collboni has saved this Friday one of the last hot potatoes he had on his table this term. Junts per Barcelona has announced its favorable vote for the new Ciutat Vella usage plan, the mechanism with which the City Council can influence the commercial fabric of the district. A document that had caused a stir among neighborhood associations and left-wing groups in the council – they consider that it consolidates the tourist monoculture of the area – and that the district councilor, Albert Batlle, has defended once the necessary support has been secured to move it forward.

In a press conference, Batlle argued that the new usage plan makes it possible to confront the proliferation of activities that generate negative impact or little added value in the city center. Among the businesses that the City Council seeks to restrict are mainly cannabis shops and cannabis smoking clubs – completely prohibited after a transaction with the PP –, souvenirs, 24-hour supermarkets, nail salons, and mobile phone case shops, which will have to comply with requirements that make it very difficult for new ones to open in the district. Usage plans only limit new licenses, so they do not affect businesses that are currently operating.

"We will conduct close monitoring of activities with the greatest negative impact on coexistence and public space," Batlle promised. In response to criticism that activities related to tourism – such as the rental of scooters, bicycles, or other types of vehicles, or luggage storage – are not further restricted, the councilor defended the need to "avoid general prohibitions" and opt "for more surgical and precise regulation." What should not be done, he said, is to "seek the isolation of the district." "The city tore down its walls a century and a half ago, and there is no way it is a matter of putting them back up," he pointed out.

The district manager, Fèlix Ortega, has also responded to some of these criticisms. For example, he has clarified that some of the planned locker spaces are not intended for the suitcases of tourists but rather as "lockers" that can be used to collect neighbors' parcels, similar to what happens with a post office. In the case of vehicle rental, he has also specified that the regulation toughens the conditions for what the premises must be like, to ensure that if new ones are opened, they are done so under conditions that minimize disturbances to residents and public space.

Regarding the possibility that the new usage plan will allow up to seven new nightclubs to open in the district, Batlle has considered it "false". Although they have not wanted to say exactly how many can be opened, both he and Ortega have emphasized that beyond the restrictions established by the usage plan, to open a venue of this type, one must find a space that complies with the regulations and obtain a license. However, they have stressed that the restrictions will mean that if any are opened, they will be in the peripheries of the district and far from residents.

The key to the new usage plan is that it creates many more headings to have more control over activities —it goes from 55 types of activities to 180— and establishes a new higher division to categorize them based on their impact on public space, noise, quality of life, waste, and coexistence. That is, in addition to the restrictions specific to their heading – depending on whether it is a hairdresser, a bar, a textile shop, or a phone shop, to give some examples–, each activity will have other limitations depending on which of the three higher categories it is grouped into: high impact, moderate impact, or activities to be promoted.

A prolific relationship

With the alliance to move forward the Ciutat Vella usage plan, PSC and Junts consolidate a relationship that has recently been prolific in the city. In recent months, Collboni's executive had already had the support of the group led by Jordi Martí Galbis to move forward with projects such as the plans to make the new Capitol Theatre on La Rambla or the Thyssen Museum in the old Comèdia possible. Also to approve the coexistence ordinance. A harmony that seemed lost a year ago, when the two groups were unable to approve the reform of 30% protected housing or the regulation of Taser guns by the Guardia Urbana.

Junts councilor Damià Calvet has defended the agreement to correct the "failure" of the usage plan approved by Ada Colau's government in 2018. According to him, this "greatly increases the City Council's control and sanctioning capacity" and will force nail salons, phone case shops, and cannabis businesses to prove they had their activity legalized before the license suspension decreed in July 2024. Furthermore, Calvet highlighted that the current license suspension expires in July and it was necessary to reach that point with a new usage plan approved to prevent new unwanted businesses from opening.

From Barcelona en Comú, on the other hand, councilor Jordi Rabassa has asked Collboni not to bring the usage plan for approval as it is this Tuesday and to take advantage of the remaining month to negotiate a new agreement with the neighbors and the left-wing parties. "This is a right-wing usage plan that condemns the district to dependence on tourism and causes more families to leave," he lamented. Also from the ranks of ERC, a proposal has been lamented that, they say, "will allow an increase in the opening of tourist businesses in an area already saturated with this type of business, which kills neighborhood commerce and depersonalizes the city".