The real estate ‘tsunami’ in Spain: the administration of urban growth in the case of Arroyo de la Encomienda and Valladolid, Spain

Abstract

This paper examines the consequences of the city planning law of 1998 in the particular case of Arroyo de la Encomienda and Valladolid. This law aimed to liberalise the land and housing market in order to decrease prices. This new legal scenario was one of the main causes that led developers to choose the most accessible land to build on, that is to say, land adjoining motorways; thus breaking up the compact city model and creating a more sprawling city; transforming the radial city in to one of concentric rings. Finally, even after two years of economic crisis, prices have come down very little and the excessive competition between developers led many to end in bankruptcy.

Keywords:

• city planning law
• large infrastructures
• land and housing market
• city model

Acknowledgements

This article was translated from Spanish by Alan Hynds.

Notes

City Planning in Spain, during the second half of the twentieth century, was regulated by a number of successive laws:

	Ley del Suelo y Ordenación Urbana of 12 May 1956
	Reform of the Régimen del Suelo y Ordenación Urbana, 19/1975 (definitive version RD 1356/1976)
	Reform of the Régimen Urbanístico y Valoraciones del Suelo, 8/1990 (definitive version 1992), promulgated by the Socialist government
	Ley de Régimen del Suelo y Valoraciones, 6/1998, promulgated by the Conservative government
	Ley del Suelo 8/2007 (definitive version 2008), promulgated by the Socialist government.

2. The Royal Decree Law allows the government, in the case of extraordinary and urgent need, to pass a law of a provisional nature without prior consultation with Parliament, and which would have to be ratified at a later date.

3. Suelo Urbanizable Programado (SUP) and Suelo Urbanizable No Programado (SUNP) were two types of land for urban growth defined by the Land Law of 8/1990. The distinction between them was eliminated with the Royal Decree (Law 5/1996), and the existence of a programme with time limits was cancelled, as the question of time was suppressed, as well as the coordination and superimposition of one plan on top of another. (SUP and SUNP are two different kinds of land for growth in a short future period; programado means inside the programme – and over a long period.)

4. Article 148 of the Spanish Constitution: ‘1. The Autonomous Communities can assume responsibility in the following areas: (…) 3.ª Territorial Regulation, city planning and housing’.

5. Paragraph 2 of the Reasoning behind Law 6/1998.

6. Article 1 of Law 6/1998.

7. Article 18 of Law 6/1998 defines the duties of the landowners of suelo urbanizable:

	The obligation to cede, free of charge, the necessary land for roads, open spaces, parks and public services of a local nature to the administration (…).
	The obligation to cede, free of charge, the necessary land to carry out the general systems that the general plan, in each case, should correspondingly include.
	To pay for and, depending on the case, to build the connecting infrastructures with the general systems of communication and, when necessary, to carry out the necessary work to extend or reinforce the said systems required by the size and needs of the same and the intensity of use generated thereby, according to the requisites and conditions established in the General Plan.
	The obligation to cede, free of charge, to the acting administration the land corresponding to 10% of the buildable land (…)
	To equitably distribute the profits and responsibilities derived from the planning (…).
	To pay for and to carry out the implantation of services (…)
	To lay out the plots in the timeframe established by the planning, when applicable.

8. Point 2, paragraph 2 of the Reasoning, and Article 18.3 of Law 6/1998.

9. Section 3 of the Reasoning of Law 6/1998.

10. Report of the General Plan of Arroyo de la Encomienda, p. 4.

11. Report of the General Plan of Arroyo de la Encomienda, p. 70.

12. Information from the Ministry of Transport.

13. The municipalities of the ring of villages immediately surrounding Valladolid are: Arroyo de la Encomienda, Boecillo, Cabezón de Pisuerga, Cigales, La Cistérniga, Fuensaldaña, Laguna de Duero, Renedo de Esgueva, Santovenia, Simancas, Tudela de Duero, Viana de Cega and Zaratá.

14. The covered bull ring cost [euro]5.9 million (El Norte de Castilla, 6 November 2006).

15. As a result of these protests, the Education Advisory Council of the regional government agreed to offer three further classes of 25 pupils each in two schools in Arroyo (El Norte de Castilla, 11 September 2008).

16. Directrices de Ordenación del Territorio de Valladolid y su Entorno.

17. The decision of Valladolid City Council to approve such unwarranted growth was questionable from the very beginning and, considering the number of unoccupied houses at that time, it can only be understood as a reaction to the growth of Arroyo. In 2001, there were 138,032 houses in the municipality of Valladolid (of which 17,142 were empty). If we add the 13 villages immediately surrounding the city of Valladolid, the total census would rise to 163,578 houses (of which 21,329 were empty). Source: 2001 Census, INE.

18. The fall in the prices of houses over the year spanning the third and fourth quarters of 2008 and the first and second quarters of 2009 was 8.3% on a national level and 6.5% in the Province of Valladolid (see www.mviv.es/).