Court approves tree ordinance with PSOE criticism: "It transfers responsibility to residents"

PalmaPalma City Council has initially approved the new municipal ordinance on urbanization, trees, and open spaces, replacing the one in effect since 1985. It unifies criteria for the design and transformation of public spaces with the aim of "improving accessibility, sustainability, legal certainty, and urban quality," as explained by the Councilor for Urbanism, Housing, and Strategic Projects, Óscar Fidalgo, at a press conference. "With this step, Cort has an updated instrument that will allow for the planning of future urban developments under common criteria of quality, sustainability, accessibility, and legal certainty," he highlighted.

The text approved this Tuesday by the Urban Planning Department incorporates as main novelties the implementation of Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems (SUDS) to promote the infiltration of rainwater, reduce the risk of flooding, and improve aquifer recharge, in addition to prioritizing the undergrounding of electrical and telecommunications networks.

Cort detailed that the ordinance also regulates urban trees, which it considers an essential urban service, and establishes criteria to promote their development and conservation, as well as new requirements for the design of parks, gardens, and squares.

The regulation establishes that the alignment tree proposal for a street must include the maximum number of specimens that the species allows; that street trees must have characteristics that allow for their proper development; respect, whenever possible, pre-existing trees; and the protection of tree trunks during the course of works.

The regulation also includes a sanctioning regime with fines of up to 3,000 euros and regulates the obligations of developers when actions affect public spaces.

"With this ordinance, the City Council is committed to a more accessible, greener, safer city, better prepared to face future challenges, ensuring that each new street, square, park, and urban development contributes to building a Palma of higher quality, more resilient, and designed for people," expressed the councilor.Criticism and rejection of the PSOE

The PSOE of Palma, for its part, has rejected the city's new urban planning ordinance, considering that it reduces the protection of trees and transfers the maintenance of private spaces for public use to homeowners' associations. The socialists have announced that they will present amendments to the text. "Instead of solving, it adds more headaches to the neighbors, especially in more sensitive neighborhoods," said councilor Pepe Martínez.

The municipal group has argued that the new regulation eliminates the obligation to preserve 70% of tree cover in urban planning actions and replaces it with the criterion of preserving the maximum possible number of specimens, which prioritizes buildability over green spaces.

Regarding private spaces for public use, in the new ordinance, the owners of passages, arcades, and private spaces are obliged to take charge of cleaning, pavement repair, accessibility, public access, and night lighting. If they do not, they will be sanctioned under threat of subsidiary execution by the City Council and repercussion of management costs and others. "The use will be public, but the cost, private," explains Martínez. In Palma, there are numerous private spaces for public use, such as, for example, in Camp Redó and Verge de Lluc, among others. These are neighborhoods with old buildings, as nowadays everything is public space.

The PSOE has also questioned that the text limits sanctions for certain urban planning violations to 3,000 euros, as it considers that it lowers the regime provided for in regional legislation.