Yesterday, the Territorial Commission of the Generalitat de Catalunya definitively approved the Biopol-Granvia Urban Master Plan (PDU), one of the great transformations of l’Hospitalet de Llobregat pending for years. We return to the box from the year 2017. At that time, when the project had the name PDU Granvia-Llobregat, this step was already taken. But then the courts paralyzed the planning and a process was undertaken to remake the design, seeking more support for an idea that never found success. The circumstances are different now, although we have to see how it ends.
“The new project and the previous one are completely different. There are only two things in common: the partial burying of the Granvia highway and that action is being taken practically in the same area,” describes Raúl Alvarín, director of the consortium half-owned by the Generalitat and the City Council that promotes the development. “The change is substantial,” Alvarín insists on planning that aspires to create one of the “most important biomedical research centers in southern Europe,” in the words of the Government and the City Council in separate statements.
They have the support of important institutions present in the area such as the Bellvitge Hospital, the Catalan Institute of Oncology, the University of Barcelona, ??the Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute, the Sant Joan de Déu Hospital and the Esplugues de Llobregat City Council , also involved in the creation of a metropolitan cluster dedicated to health sciences. In the enclave there is fertilizer to attract companies in this sector and that is what they want to achieve.
It is also intended to adapt the poor connection between the facilities located on either side of the current Granvia and the accesses to the Llobregat river. In addition, it is proposed to rehabilitate three historic farmhouses: Cal Trabal, Cal Masover Nou and Torre Gran. All in all, it is a transformation that affects 8% of the municipal area in which buildings such as hotels or residences are also planned and that aims to generate thousands of jobs.
ERC was one of the parties that took the previous PDU to court. At that time they were demanding the conservation of Cal Trabal, which in addition to being a farmhouse is also the last agricultural stronghold of l’Hospitalet. This was one of the main political battlehorses over the project, although not the only one. With the new planning, Cal Trabal becomes a space “free of construction and public ownership. A green area that must preserve ecosystem structures due to its importance as a bird corridor,” says Alvarín. Cal Trabal is part of the expansion of the special protection area for birds (Zepa) that the Generalitat promised to approve.
In their note, the City Council and the Government speak of “preserving the agricultural character” of the area and Alvarín clarifies: “A later project will decide the exact management.” All in all, the changes have been enough for the Government, now in the hands of ERC, to support the PSC City Council as Junts previously did. Before, the green light was also obtained from the Metropolitan Area (AMB).
Meanwhile, a group of irreducible neighbors who consider the project an exercise in speculation and warn of its possible gentrifying effect are preparing for a new judicial battle. The No Més Blocs platform, which is not opposed to promoting biopol but believes that it can be done without reclassifying a single square meter, is collecting financial support to return to court.
