Almost one hectare in the heart of Zaragoza, a custom reclassification to go from educational to residential land and, as a culmination, a recurring outcome: neighbors outraged by the “gift” to the developer and because what they had been promised, according to they denounce, it is not fulfilled. This time it was on the site of the old Jesús y María school, on Goya Avenue in the Aragonese capital. On Wednesday, the PP City Council finally announced the content of the agreement with the owner, Wilcox, which has been a cold shower in an area where public facilities are conspicuous by their absence. The municipal government, however, defends an operation “fraught with interest for the city.”
The current building of Jesús y María dates back to the 1940s and served as a school until 1995, when its occupants abandoned it. The property then changed hands until it reached Bilbao Patrimonial SA, currently Wilcox. In 2020, this company reactivated the land and proposed to the City Council – then already with the PP at the helm, although in coalition with Ciudadanos – a reclassification to build 170 free homes. In exchange, the developer would build – turnkey – a civic center, the equipment most in demand by residents, and the City Council would receive roads and green areas. An underground public parking lot was also negotiated to satisfy another need in the neighborhood.
The proposal was rejected, but, instead of resuming negotiations, the City Council opted for the opposite route: it first processed the reclassification of the land, which would go from educational to residential, and continued negotiating afterwards. In March 2023, the urban planning saw the light. In exchange for the 160 homes, the developer committed to building a civic center valued at 6 million euros, plus the necessary concessions for roads and parking spaces corresponding to the apartments. In turn, the door was left open for a public underground parking, a possibility repeatedly mentioned by the municipal Planning Councilor, Víctor Serrano.
Already in July of this year, the municipal group of the PSOE announced that it would appeal the reclassification: “The company has won, there is no benefit for the city,” criticized the spokesperson, Lola Ranera. “What they are going to do is rescue a speculative private investment,” attacked Horacio Royo, also a socialist. “It is blackmail by the owners,” added the councilor Suso Domínguez, from Zaragoza en Común.
But the fears of the neighbors and the municipal opposition were expressed on Wednesday, when Serrano himself outlined the agreement agreed upon by the Zaragoza City Council with the private owners for whom he had reclassified the land. “It is a gift for the company, that is the impression it gives us,” summarizes Carlos Terrer, from the Puerta del Carmen Neighborhood Association.
Because the agreement is quantified at 6 million euros, but not with what had been proposed all this time. Thus, Wilcox undertakes to contribute 3.4 million euros in cash plus another 2.5 million in the form of land: a plot in Las Fuentes for a green area, another between this neighborhood and San José – where the City Council will undertake a promotion of homes for rent – and a third on Goya’s own land where the public facilities must be located. But without public equipment, since the construction of the property is the responsibility of the City Council.
A “concession” to the promoter
“We found out from the press. We have been dealing with this issue for 20 years; It is very sad that, knowing what we were demanding, they did not even call us to tell us,” laments Terrer, who has no doubt that it is a “concession” to the developer Wilcox. The transfer of the plots in Las Fuentes, for example, had never come up in the conversations held for the project. The neighborhood representative remembers that this was the “only opportunity” they had for the area to have a civic center, given that there are no more plots of land that can be used. Since there is no explicit commitment, they now fear that the City Council will take time to erect the equipment. “And that is if you want to do it, because there is no commitment,” insists the neighborhood representative.
For the government team, however, the operation is good. “It ends with an empty and degraded space, a plot of 9,000 square meters in which a multitude of species live, and not exactly exotic ones,” councilor Víctor Serrano ironically said on Wednesday. In turn, the popular councilor highlighted that the agreement with the developer means generating a “new green area in Las Fuentes” and another space to build 15 homes that will be used to promote affordable rentals in front of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine.
Regarding the construction of the equipment on the Jesús and María lot – according to the neighbors’ demand, a civic center –, Serrano pointed out that the City Council’s interest was “monetarization” to be able to undertake construction when “can”. It must be remembered that the cash contribution, of 3.4 million euros, contrasts, for example, with the cost of similar facilities in the city, such as the Delicias civic center, which has amounted to almost 6 million euros, or that of Goya Park, tendered for 5.3 million euros.
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