Massana Parish Council Unveils Revised Urban Plan Draft, Retains 15% Land Cession and Quota System

The Massana parish council has unveiled the foundational document for its revised Parish Urban Planning and Organisation Plan (POUP), maintaining the 15% mandatory land cession and quota system to control expansion while emphasising landscape protection, territorial cohesion, and growth aligned with actual population needs.

Presented at the closing session of the Consultative Council, the document draws on input from about 30 representatives across sectors. Discussions covered open spaces, mobility, housing, economic activity, heritage, and landscape safeguards, including contributions through the POUP online portal. It frames Massana as a mountain and nature-oriented parish with an economy rooted in tourism and services, promoting efficient land use, stronger non-urbanised areas, and compact development that enhances existing urban areas.

Key priorities include five action areas: improving mobility networks, embedding heritage and landscape features, balancing public facilities, scaling growth to real demand, and customising urban rules by location. Measures specify using current building heights as benchmarks for new constructions to aid integration, and differentiating regulations for urbanised and non-urbanised land based on slope, site, and visual impact. Urban planner Sebastià Jornet highlighted land classification as pivotal to orderly development.

Consol Major Eva Sansa described the document as the blueprint for the new POUP, adding that the team will increase minimum plot sizes in urbanisable areas to lower density and preserve scenery—while keeping existing conditions in consolidated urban zones. The Consultative Council endorsed the quota system's continuation.

This concludes the participatory phase, with technical drafting now underway via periodic meetings between architects and the council. Public exhibition is scheduled for July, followed by provisional approval in October.

In parallel, Sant Julià de Lòria parish council plans to launch its POUP review process in April, targeting a vision through 2040 despite the four-year cycle under the General Territory and Urban Planning Law (LGOTU). It starts with an online survey for all residents, then forms a consultative council with landowners, businesses, third-sector groups, and professional colleges to shape core guidelines. Consol Major Cerni Cairat called it "cooperative urban planning," prioritising civil society's input over past approaches focused narrowly on building codes. The initial technical phase—updating maps and the rural cadastre—is nearly complete. Consultative outcomes will inform maps and regulations in the next stage, with provisional approval of the first draft by year-end, public objections period, and definitive approval in 2027, depending on allegation numbers.