DESCRIPTION
In December 2013, when the Territorial Strategy of the Valencian Community-Decree 1/2011, of January 13, of the Consell, had been published for a few months and was still scarcely known (despite the fact that AUG-ARQUITECTOS, SLP had several years before informing various municipalities about the importance of this strategy), the Castellón Provincial Council commissioned this company with an opinion on the incidence of this territorial instrument in the province, taking into account that as established in the Preamble of Decree 1/2011 (…):
“integrates sectoral policies with territorial projection, takes into account the threats and opportunities of the external context, encourages actions to promote changes in the territory, establishes planning and management guidelines for undeveloped land, and defines the appropriate areas for planning at the sub-regional level. All this, in a complex economic and social scenario in which transcendental changes are taking place that are going to have great repercussions on the structure and strategic position of the territories in the global environment.”
In the opinion prepared by AUG-ARQUITECTOS, SLP, it is pointed out that, from the territorial perspective in which the ETCV operates, the adaptation of municipal urban planning to the ETCV guidelines is a priority measure, orienting territorial management towards preservation and enhancement of the natural spaces and the landscape, the renewal and requalification of tourist destinations and the protection of cultural heritage as authentic “conductive threads” of this new territorial order. The current economic situation (year 2013) should be taken advantage of to reformulate the territorial model, betting on the development of supra-municipal territorial and urban planning instruments from the local scale, implementing mechanisms of transversal governance and public participation, limiting in this new context the role of local corporations in controlling the execution of planning.
But it is also necessary to claim the implementation of rationality and weighting criteria in urban planning procedures and in the formulation of protection instruments, so that small municipalities are not overburdened with the processing of costly and endless instruments of dubious efficiency. It is time to exhibit as a supreme gesture of sustainability, the maintenance of the population in many small municipalities and to assume that the responsibility of safeguarding the natural environment cannot be burdened with a zeal that perhaps has been absent in other actions. In recent years, this sensation has caused a growing gap between the policies of the autonomous administration and the local concerns of many municipalities, burdened by the incessant exodus and aging population. Only by overcoming this divorce can one speak of true participation of all the social agents involved in territorial planning.
The journey begun has no return nor does it understand political colors. It requires commitment from all political forces and continuity over time. Although it is true that the ETCV has been established in the Valencian Community when in other territories years ago they designed their respective “territorial models”, this circumstance will allow us to learn from the mistakes of third parties. We are beginning the path at a critical moment, of changes and questions. But we cannot shirk our responsibilities or stay out of the design of our future. The ETCV offers us the tools; it is in our hands to know how to use them.
DETAILS OF THE PROJECT
Promoter: Diputación de Castellón
