The large urban projects of the Government of José Luis Martínez-Almeida and justice maintain a relationship full of ups and downs. The Superior Court of Justice of Madrid (TSJM) has partially annulled the Special Plan (PE) approved by the City Council for the so-called Ciudad del Deporte del Atlético de Madrid by understanding that hides a covert change of use of the land in which it is intended to be built.
The ruling, dated November 27 and to which this newspaper has had access, maintains that the City Council improperly used the figure of the special plan to substantially alter the urban planning regime of the main affected plotES-01, which the current General Urban Planning Plan of Madrid (PGOUM) of 1997 qualifies as equipment land.
After considering the appeal presented by an individual, the Contentious-Administrative Chamber understands that the instrument approved by the municipal government “substantially modifies the urban planning regime” of said plot by introduce into it a wide range of tertiary uses that exceed the function of sports equipment contemplated in the planning and that are disconnected from it. This change, the magistrates point out, far exceeds what can be done with a PE, which is why the City Council should have processed a specific modification of the General Plansubject to regional approval and environmental impact assessment.
Lack of general interest
In addition to criticizing the chosen instrument, the TSJM also questions whether this intensification of tertiary uses responds to the general interest, instead of “urban planning” towards a specific beneficiaryalluding to the gigantic private shopping center included in the project. The order does not question that this tertiary use complementary to sports may exist, but it does point out that the magnitude of this breaks the urban planning model approved for the San Blas-Canillejas Olympic area.
That leap, the magistrates emphasize, It cannot be done “through the back door” through a special plan. For this reason, the ruling declares the nullity of the articles of the Special Plan that enable said independent tertiary uses and the determinations linked to them (buildability conditions, accesses and schedules, among others), but maintains the rest of the planning in force, including the implementation of sports facilities and municipal equipment on the other plots of the area.
Sources from the Urban Planning, Environment and Mobility Area directed by Borja Carabante have reported that the City Council “does not share the content of the sentence” and is going to file an appeal. According to them, the special plan “does not modify the use of the aquatic centerbut maintains the qualification as “public service with the qualified use of unique equipment“, which allows a series of uses associated with the main one.
What the EP does is “make access and hours of these associated uses more flexible that contribute to the main usethey add from the department. Regarding the absence of environmental evaluation, another of the issues pointed out by the TSJM in its ruling, they recall that this procedure “is not required in Special Plans that do not alter the buildability of the plots”, as is the case of the one in question. Be that as it may, ” “The Sports City project is not cancelled.”emphasizes the municipal government.
A “great shot” to “the letter”
““Exactly what we said was going to happen has happened.”has assessed the Urban Planning spokesperson of the PSOE-M, Antonio Giraldoafter the sentence was made public. In an audio sent to the press, the socialist councilor recalled that, since the operation began to take shape, his training warned that the special plan approved in October 2024 “was not compatible with urban planning regulations,” He presented allegations point by point and voted against in the Plenary. “This is what happens when you do urban planning a la carta, when the interest is not general, but rather benefiting certain particular interests, Giraldo stressed.
In the same line, Jose Luis Nietofrom Más Madrid, has stated that this new setback is “a judicial wake-up call to the lack of urban control” of the popular ones and a confirmation that it is a “full-fledged urban planning bomb” in favor of Atlético. “Almeida approved a special plan without any justification, without environmental evaluation and without demonstrating the supposed general interest that must prevail in a transfer of public land. And this is exactly what the ruling reproaches the municipal government for,” Nieto says.
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