On the border of Barcelona with Montcada i Reixac, next to the exit from the city towards Sabadell or Girona, in the Vallbona neighborhood (Nou Barris), is what constitutes the last great agricultural orchard in Barcelona. Is about The Ponderosa. Land that until a few years ago was cultivated by a key person so that the land would last and not be sown with houses: Juan Ortuno. He passed away in 2019, but his work will not be forgotten, in the sense that those lands will continue to be cultivated.
The project, which will take years to materialize, will affect an area of 6.4 hectares on the border of the city with Montcada
Barcelona City Council will do something that until now has been formulated rather backwards. The consistory will modify the classification of that land to convert it into non-developable agricultural. If everything goes as planned, the neighborhood claim to avoid the massive brick will be fulfilled. A position that already avoided a plan from ten years ago that sought to build a neighborhood of 2,000 homes in the area. And that will be one of the measures that will give rise to a global project with other legs, AgroVallbona, which will affect a space of 6.4 hectares.
The agricultural consolidation of La Ponderosa will require una Modification of the General Metropolitan Plan (MPGM) that it will also provide for some houses (the city council qualifies the figure, not specified, as “moderate& rdquor;) and that, if there are no surprises, it should be completed, that is to say definitively approved in 18 months. But it is only one stage of a calendar that is not closed as far as the general remodeling now announced is concerned.
eleven centuries later
Those of La Ponderosa are lands that in themselves represent an ancient vestige, because they are the last ones in use nourished by the water of the Rec Comtal, which has been supplying since the 10th century, as the manager of the Consorci del Besòs recalls, Carmen Ribas, when he talks about the project that is planned there.
Ribas, the Commissioner for Social Economy and Food Policy, alvaro porroand the director of Pla de Barris, Arnau Balcells, reported on Friday an operation that the mayoress of Barcelona presented this Saturday, Ada Colauand that of Montcada, Laura Fields.
The shielding of the agricultural zone of La Ponderosa is one of the main elements of an operation that affects an area that covers 6.4 hectares. Various projects are planned, and various institutions and private agents will be involved in them. Among others, the town halls of the two adjoining municipalities; Renta Corporación, owner of land, and Adif, which also owns plots included in the AgroVallbona area.
Multiple mandates
And everything will largely start from overcoming a significant obstacle thanks to the burying of the R2 tracks, which is under tender and which, in principle, will be completed in six years. In other words: the completion of the project that is now beginning has a still uncertain date, which will undoubtedly transcend this mandate and probably the next.
AgroVallbona, summarizes the consistory, will consist of five axes. One is the consolidation of the agricultural use of La Ponderosa, along with the preservation of the Besòs and Rec Comtal surroundings. Another, the Rec Comtal protection plan, for which there are resources from Next Generation funds.
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A third involves the remodeling of the ritz farm and the moderate creation of housing and the transfer of already existing facilities. Also the recovery of the Racing Vallbona field, which will temporarily have to be moved to Torrent de Tapiolas due to the operation necessary to bury the tracks.
The fourth will be the project that will be activated on the farm, where training and internships will be offered, in an initiative focused on agroecology. And the fifth is the strengthening of the connection between Vallbona and the neighborhood of Can Sant Joan, in Montcada. Now without roads, the two neighborhoods will recover their status as a balcony overlooking the Besòs River, underlines the manager of the consortium.