A recent ruling by the Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia (TSJC) halts the expropriation of Casa Buenos Aires approved by Barcelona City Council. At least for now. This is a controversial planning operation arranged in the previous mandate by the government of Mayoress Ada Colau to make equipment and endowment housing.
The owners of this property planned to build a luxury hotel there. The socialist executive of the mayor Jaume Collboni is currently studying whether or not to appeal against the decision. The communes are already rushing their former partners. They understand that the decision is mainly of a political nature, that legally speaking everything is very clear.
The truth is that the decision of the TSJC is based more on a few administrative errors, and not so much on really serious violations. The processing in the previous term of the corresponding modification of the metropolitan general plan (PGM) was not exemplary. The fact is that the socialists did not at any time show great enthusiasm for this project.
This story began in 2019. At that time, Casa Buenos Aires had been closed for seven years. The congregation of the Pauline Fathers and the investment fund London Private Company signed the pre-sale of this modernist style building. Vallvidrera is one of the districts where the special urban plan for tourist accommodation (Peuat) allows the opening of new hotels.
At that time, residents from the surrounding area and other neighborhoods on the mountain occupied Casa Buenos Aires and turned it into a kind of facility, with talks, yoga classes, bingo for the elderly, film screenings… And in the background , a claim endorsed by many entities: public services are lacking in Vallvidrera, young people have to leave because they cannot find a flat, “the last thing we need here is a luxury tourist resort”.
The executive of Colau supported this usurpation and announced that he would catalog the site, that he would protect it in order to prevent it from collapsing, and also that he would expropriate it to build a neighborhood facility and 37 homes endowment The Mossos d’Esquadra evicted Casa Buenos Aires in October 2020. The Consistory approved the expropriation a few days later, with the votes of BComú, PSC – at that time partners of the communes – and also ERC .
Weeks before, however, the then councilor responsible for the district of Sarrià-Sant Gervasí, the socialist Albert Batlle, stressed that “this project is not a priority of this council. Absolutely not. And I have also said it to the municipal government.” Then this story took a back seat, until now.
The decision of the administrative litigation room of the TSJC represents a blow against this process. The court is largely in favor of the religious congregation and the investment fund and cancels the modification of the PGM for the cataloging of the Buenos Aires House, the expropriation and the conversion into a facility. The court understands that the project does not present the required gender impact report, and also that the creation of subsidized housing does not sufficiently justify the corresponding expropriation.
The new deputy mayor of Urbanism, the socialist Laia Bonet, succinctly points out that “the City Council’s legal services are analyzing the sentence. We will make the decision to appeal based on your findings. It’s still early.”
Janet Sanz, the former deputy mayor of Urbanism and now spokesperson for the municipal group of the commons, has it much clearer. “The truth is that the sentence has little legal basis. It is not based on planning offences, but on alleged correctable errors. Other expropriations have been done in the same way. The municipal government must appeal against this sentence yes or yes, so that the process can continue. We wouldn’t understand if he didn’t. We are talking about attending to very important needs of the Vallvidrera neighborhood”.
