The orchards of La Ponderosa in the Vallbona neighborhood on the outskirts of Barcelona. Albert Garcia
La Ponderosa is a farm with almost seven hectares of orchards in the Vallbona neighborhood of Barcelona, in the far north of the city. Operated by the Ortuño family for decades, it is the last agricultural lot on city soil, and the city government is preparing to shield it off so it cannot be built. The soil on which lettuce, carrots, parsley, chickpeas and other vegetables settle can be planned and cultivated. In fact, approval was given initially (but not definitively) in the late 2000s to transform it into a new 2,000-story quartier. Now Mayor Ada Colau’s government is promoting a change of plan to move the land from metropolitan endowment (with no defined roof to be built) to uncultivable land for agricultural use.
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The urban plan is just part of what Barcelona and the neighboring town of Montcada i Reixac have called AgroVallbona: “A new neighborhood model based on urban agroecology and sustainable nutrition,” say the administrations. We’re a little over three months away from the elections and it may sound like an election announcement, but the project has been years in the making. The conservation of La Ponderosa (the land is owned by Renta Corporación and Adif) is the most prominent plan affecting the outskirts of Barcelona’s periphery. Because Vallbona (in the Nou Barris district) is a neighborhood sandwiched between twenty rapid transit lanes, the Besòs river and the tracks that pass through Montcada awaiting the burial. The mayors of Barcelona and Montcada presented the project this Saturday. Colau has called it a “treasure” and regrets that “cities live with their backs to the country when they are needed”. Her counterpart from Montcada, Laura Campos, celebrated “the protection of La Ponderosa from real estate speculation, the link with the social and solidarity economy, with kilometer zero food and food sovereignty”.
Image of the current state of the neighborhoods of Vallbona, Barcelona; and Can Sant Joan, Montcada i Reixac. THE CITY HALL OF BARCELONA
Barcelona is not the first community to deprogram buildable land into enclaves of ecological or unique value, but it is notable for its size and status as a major city in Barcelona. What is off-putting here, or what hastened the start of the transformation, is the availability of the money ($621 million) needed to start burying the tracks after Montcada claimed and delayed it for decades, so many that the residents have already lost the census . The tender has now been put out to tender and the start of construction is getting closer.
The Rec Comtal, a 10th-century moat that runs through the Vallbona neighborhood of Barcelona. Albert Garcia
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The plan, with short, medium and long-term measures, envisages assets of great value such as the Rec Comtal (an open irrigation canal from the 10th century Granja des Ritz, which, with very advanced facilities of the time, produced fruit, vegetables and poultry for the famous hotel It also includes improvements in the Can Sant Joan neighborhood (popularly called Bifurca because it is located in the Montcada-Bifurcació station): improvement of La Muntanyeta, a privileged viewpoint, which is also a neighborhood that has its origins in self-built housing, social-educational projects, a housing growth – “moderate” according to the plan – on the Montcada side or the improvement of the connection between the neighborhoods in an area of the Barcelona area, the last section of the Besòs, with enclaves penalized by extreme poverty.
Vallbona, with just 1,400 inhabitants in the city’s lower income bracket, is also cut through by railroad tracks. To get used to the idea of institutional abandonment, the square where a party was held to celebrate the announcement this Saturday has no name. Nobody inaugurated it in his time. Neighbors have long called it Tetris Square because of the square and rectangular pieces of metal installed as seating. Incidentally, without reservation. The plan envisages other, less epic but necessary actions: the relocation of the Racing Vallbona soccer field, the Clean Point or the country house. There are also plans to improve the district’s connection to the river with a viewpoint. But it says nothing about the shantytowns at one end.
La Muntanyeta in the Can Sant Joan de Montcada neighborhood, one of the areas that the AgroVallbona project wants to improve, both in terms of housing and green maintenance. They also want to enable a vantage point. Albert Garcia
Food Policy Commissioner Álvaro Porro laments that “cities have lived off rural support” while celebrating “that more and more cities are turning to rural areas, the primary sector and food production”. AgroVallbona claims: “It is not a fungus but part of the strategy started years ago with the signing of the Milan Pact or the World Sustainable Food Capital in 2021. We are committed to a healthier city and for Vallbona to be a city reference for agriculture, beyond its constraints”.
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