The first is illegal constructions, the second is not knowing what to do with them

In 2021, the Community of Madrid began to think that it was time to know what was happening in its territory. It seems like an absurd idea, but the truth is that the Spanish administration has been organizing its territory blindly for decades. And in that context, “reestablishing urban planning legality” is impossible.

So they got to it and It took them four years to do it..

What have they found? Generally speaking, you have a problem: There are 5,334 hectares affected by illegal settlements in 56 municipalities. Of course, the problem is not perfectly distributed: 80% of these lands are concentrated in the plains of the main Madrid rivers, mainly in the areas of Tajuña (2,712 hectares), Jarama (1,019), Guadarrama (363) and Tajo (150).

And of course that makes the problem much bigger. Because failing to comply with urban planning regulations is not only an administrative issue; On the contrary, there is an enormous risk for people and the environment. The latter is easily verifiable: there are regional parks, special areas and protected places that are key to biodiversity; and overlap with the areas affected by illegal constructions.

But, in addition, as the Community itself attests, it entails an enormous physical risk because many buildings are in flood-prone areas, riverbeds and meadows. And we don’t talk about catastrophic events like DANAbut that the floods of towns (like Las Sabinas in Móstoles) has put the issue on the table.

And no one has concrete answers. Above all, because it is nothing new: the state of impunity is endemic (and not only in Madrid) for at least 20 years. And we are not only talking about “lack of control” or “turning a blind eye”: we are talking about that, while jurisprudence is clear that actions on non-developable land They can only be exceptionalThere is always a license, a specific modification or a technical fix that makes it difficult to comply with the regulations.

What is behind it, deep down, are the conflicting incentives between local and regional dynamics. It’s something we’ve been seeing from the eternal conflict of Algarrobico.

That is, now we know the real magnitude of the problem. The study, which aims to demonstrate the regional executive’s commitment to soil protection, reflects above all decades of tolerance. Now it’s time for a complex debate: demolish everything or regularize it.

And it is not just about luxury chalets or precarious settlements: there is a lot of informal productive use that fully affects local activity. Furthermore, this is Madrid, a region that, due to its demographic growth, has already organized many areas that until recently were the same or worse. If we zoomed in: the data for Spain would not be better.

And there are no solutions in sight.

Image | Community of Madrid / Elentir

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