The promoters of the megaproject for the transformation of the Vallcarca cement plant into an audiovisual hub met this Monday with the new municipal government of Sitges without any significant progress being made, although both parties were summoned to continue talking after the summer. In any case, Mayor Aurora Carbonell stated that her intention, as she already stated in the last legislature, is to submit it to citizen consultation.
The meeting, requested by the architect Jordi Artigas, from the OUA studio, was “very fast”, according to Carbonell, who described the meeting as “courtesy”. It served for the promoters to have a first contact with the new Councilor for Urban Planning and Territory and for Environmental Action and Ecological Transition, Carme Gassulla (Verds En Comú Podem), and the Councilor for Economic Promotion, Commerce and Occupation, David Martínez (Sitges Grup Independent).
Speaking to La Vanguardia, the mayoress recalled that no project has yet officially entered the Sitges City Council. And she insists that “we continue with the idea of ??submitting megaprojects like this to citizen consultation” in what she has baptized as Taula de Ciutat (City Table). A meeting space with the various economic sectors and citizens.
However, Carbonell welcomes the great project that would turn the cement company into a technological city and behind which is the Mexican tycoon Carlos Slim, who has committed an initial investment of 300 million dollars. The mayoress understands that “it is positive to diversify the local economy”, although she qualifies that “it is not a simple project”. And she warns that “it will mean addressing complex urban issues.” She even points out that it could come to fruition in the “long term”, especially if the megaproject ends up requiring changes in the classification of municipal urban planning.
For her part, the head of the municipal opposition and president of the Garraf Regional Council, Mònica Gallardo (Junts per Sitges), affirms that “we want to know more about this project that we understand represents a great opportunity not only for Sitges, but also for Garraf and for Catalonia”.
Gallardo asks the municipal government to facilitate the creation of a space where a project that includes filming sets, production companies, a multi-purpose outdoor auditorium, training and research spaces linked to the digital, audiovisual or video game industry, housing for the workers of the companies that are installed on the premises, catering and leisure services can be discussed together. Gallardo does not hide, however, that the issue of housing can be a stumbling block, but he believes that the Administration must have “the maximum predisposition” so that the initiative can prosper. In addition, she is convinced that “it is perfectly compatible to preserve and even exalt the natural environment of the Garraf Park and to develop, at the same time, the technological city”. “You have to find a way for all parties to win,” considers the councilor.
Be that as it may, Les Agulles-Ecologists in Action of the Baix Llobregat and Garraf have shown their total opposition to this “tourist megacomplex, with apartments, hotels, shopping area, equipment and an alleged high-level technological campus”. They define it as “a “nightmare of pharaonic proportions in times of social and environmental collapse”.
The president of the Gremi d’Hostaleria de Sitges, Oskar Stöber Blázquez, acknowledges that he does not know enough about the scope of the project but that “a priori I think that Sitges should explore any opportunity to continue reinforcing its leadership in quality and innovation”. In this sense, he adds that “it could be a good opportunity to continue diversifying the economy of the municipality, once sun and beach tourism is consolidated in summer and services to companies such as congresses, conventions or meetings the rest of the year.”