A group of more than 70 professionals related to urban planning have sent a letter to the mayor of Madrid, José Luis Martínez-Almeida, to stop tree felling for the project to expand metro line 11. These fellings, which began this Monday in Madrid Río and in the Comillas park, have caused these experts to paralyze the collection of signatures and send the letter urgently in an attempt to save the trees. This is the second document that they have sent to the first mayor to disallow the logging that is taking place in various parts of the city. In the first, they asked: “Recover the layout of the first project proposed by the Community of Madrid, as it is a technically and economically viable alternative that avoids the loss of trees.”
The expansion project for metro line 11 has undergone many changes since it was presented in 2022. The first alternative contemplated removing very few trees compared to the 1,027 that were going to be cut down and the 348 that were transplanted with the proposal chosen by the Ministry of Transport. When the residents of the affected areas learned about the project in February, they began to mobilize against it and the Community of Madrid stopped the logging, three months before the regional and municipal elections.
The Department of Transport agreed to some requests and released a new proposal for public information in which 880 fellings and transplants were recorded. During all this time, the Department of Transport and the Urban Planning, Mobility and Environment area of the Madrid City Council have maintained a speech that stated that they were keeping the reduction of trees to a minimum, but with each attack from the neighbors they have been reducing the number. of felling. The final proposal and the one being carried out cuts down 523 trees, but the Department of Transport has not yet reported how many more will be transplanted.
The Community of Madrid has decided to go ahead with the project despite the fact that the project is under the scrutiny of the European Parliament and the European Investment Bank and there is a lawsuit process against the project open in the courts. The Executive calls the initiative “general interest and urgency” in order to avoid the urban planning regulations that prevented it from continuing with the works. For example, the special protection that some green areas have where a station is going to be excavated. Although the works have begun in all stations – Comillas, Madrid Río, Palos de la Frontera, Atocha and Conde de Casal – felling has only begun in the first two stations. The Department of Transport has not communicated the plan for felling and transplants either.
The letter sent by the urban planning experts maintains that “the concept of general interest that the Community of Madrid applies when taking this step clashes with the feeling of its city and denotes a way of doing urban planning based on unilateral criteria unrelated to sustainable urban development, more typical of the 20th century than of the current moment.
The signatories of the letter have allied themselves with the neighbors, who have not given up the fight and have more rallies scheduled against logging because they affirm that there is a better alternative. For its part, the group of experts, which includes urban planners, anthropologists, engineers and architects, appeals to Almeida with this letter: “As mayor it is your responsibility to listen to the cry of Madrid society against these fellings and to ensure the natural heritage of our city”.
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