Pressure on the City Council to unblock the Sagrada Familia staircase

BarcelonaUntil recently, getting the residents of the Sagrada Família and the temple to agree seemed like an impossible mission. Now, however, the Barcelona City Council has achieved it twice over. On one hand, because before the summer it reached a nascent agreement regarding the impact that the staircase of the Glory façade would have on the buildings in front, which satisfied both parties. On the other hand, because since then it has maintained a silence that is making both sides of the negotiation impatient, and they are pressuring it to take a position now.

The latest to pressure the City Council have been the residents who are part of the platform for those affected by the temple. As ARA has learned, on October 9th they sent a letter to the fourth deputy mayor and councilor for the Eixample district, Jordi Valls, in which they reproached him for the lack of news since they went on vacation at the end of July, convinced that the deal was done and dusted. The Sagrada Família also wants to close a file soon that has been dragging on for years. "There is a preliminary agreement, but we are waiting for the City Council to make a move," warned the general director of the temple's Construction Board, Xavier Martínez, a month ago.

The astonishment among the residents affected by the City Council's silence towards them is even greater, because it comes when it had already achieved the most difficult part: reaching an agreement that satisfied both the temple and the residents to be able to finish Antoni Gaudí's work by building the staircase over Mallorca Street, demolishing the minimum number of homes possible, and guaranteeing the relocation of the affected residents. Squaring the circle that had resisted for more than a decade.

And what did that proposal say? Although no official paper was ever put on the table, in the negotiations with the residents and the temple—which Valls held separately—a proposal was eventually drawn up that received everyone's endorsement. A project that, as explained byEl País, involved demolitions in only one of the two city blocks affected by the 1976 General Metropolitan Plan (PGM), the one between Mallorca and València streets.

The proposal affects 194 apartments and basically involves demolishing the central section of the first block of houses. Specifically, the gap to make room for the staircase would take the shape of an inverted letter L. To form it, the impact is wider on the sea-side sidewalk of Mallorca street – from where the Barça store, the residential building next to it, the controversial Núñez i Navarro building, and the two souvenir shops on the other side would be removed –, and then it narrows to descend in a 60-meter trunk, leaving standing the buildings on the Llobregat side of the Font passage and those facing Marina street, until reaching València street.

On the other hand, the solution put on the table pardons the next block of houses between València and Mallorca streets. This would discard the idea projected by Gaudí of a large avenue that would make the access to the temple visible from the Glory facade from Diagonal avenue. However, various sources explain to ARA that the fact that there are no demolitions in this block does not mean that the City Council does not want to intervene there. In fact, according to the same sources, the council's idea would be to convert the current Manhattan parking lot into a large green area in the form of a block interior.

Regarding the affected apartments, the agreement negotiated by the parties provided for compensation or the option of relocation in a new building that would be erected on the plot that the Sagrada Família has owned since 2019 on the adjacent block, between Marina, Lepant, Mallorca, and València streets. On the table, sources familiar with the conversations point out, there was also the possibility of increasing the density of the area to allow for more housing in the new block. Throughout the entire negotiation, the city council has stressed that its priority is for the agreement to prioritize housing.

With all this on the table, at the end of July both the neighbors and the Sagrada Família were optimistic that the agreed-upon deal could be signed with a group photo upon returning from the holidays. That has not been the case. However, sources from the City Council emphasize their willingness to continue dialoguing with the Construction Board and the Neighborhood Association "to find the best fit for the monument within the neighborhood, with current urban planning, and with an environment under high tourist pressure".

The urgency of the Sagrada Família

The president of the Sagrada Família Residents' Association, Gabriel Mercadal, points out that in the conversations, which until now pivoted between them, the platform of affected parties, and the temple, a new external agent has appeared: the Architects' Association of Catalonia (COAC), which wants to have its say on the solution adopted for one of the most relevant projects underway in the Catalan capital. A contribution that must seek to ensure that, beyond the urban planning solution –already underway–, the intervention in the public space makes architectural sense. "They are welcome to the debate, but let it be resumed and concluded now," warns Mercadal.

Those who would also like to close the file soon are the Sagrada Família, as it is still waiting to obtain the building permit from the City Council to be able to move forward with the Glory façade –for now, it only has permission to build the four towers–. For the moment, it has postponed the outcome of the competition that would serve to choose the artist who would be in charge of the sculptural ensemble, but resolving the conflict of the staircase could hold the key for the temple to be able to finish its work.

All of this adds pressure on a municipal government that set itself the goal of closing within this term a matter that the city has been dragging on for decades. Approving a modification of the PGM before the end of the term is already impossible, and the doubt now is whether at least some kind of commitment can be closed between the parties before the May elections arrive.