10.18537/est.v012.n024.

a09
Artículo 9

Active citizen participation in the drafting of Master Urban

Plans of major Spanish cities
Participación ciudadana activa en la redacción de los Planes
Generales de Ordenación Urbana de las grandes ciudades
españolas

Victoria Artés-Hernández1 0000-0002-3490-8274

Jaume Blancafort2 0000-0002-8718-6228
Patricia Reus3 0000-0003-4805-385X

1
Universidad Politécnica de Cartagena, España, victoria.artes@edu.upct.es
2
Universidad Politécnica de Cartagena jaume.blancafort@upct.es
3
Universidad Politécnica de Cartagena, patricia.reus@upct.es

RESUMEN:
Debido al creciente interés de los gobiernos en involucrar a la ciudadanía en
las políticas públicas, el presente trabajo estudia el grado de participación
ciudadana en la revisión de los planes generales municipales durante los
últimos 20 años en los 25 municipios españoles más poblados. Para ello, se
ha analizado la documentación disponible en los portales de internet de los
Ayuntamientos y en la hemeroteca. El objetivo es determinar el grado de
implicación de la ciudadanía en el planeamiento municipal. Desde el año
2001, de las 25 ciudades analizadas, 18 han confeccionado o están en
proceso de desarrollo de un nuevo planeamiento urbanístico y de estas 12
han aplicado o tienen previsto aplicar una participación suplementaria a la
mínima exigida legalmente. Este hecho evidencia un empeño plausible de
esas administraciones municipales por involucrar activamente a sus
ciudadanos en la revisión de su planeamiento, más allá de lo que exige la
Ley.

Palabras clave: planificación urbana; participación ciudadana; plan general

de ordenación urbana; legislación urbanística; ciudades españolas.

ABSTRACT:
In response to the growing interest of governments in involving citizens in
public policies, this paper studies the degree of citizen participation in the
revision of master urban plans during the last 20 years in the 25 most
populated Spanish municipalities. For this purpose, the documentation
available on the Internet portals of the city councils and in the online
newspaper library has been analyzed. The objective is to determine the
degree of citizen involvement in municipal planning. Since 2001, of the 25
cities analyzed, 18 have drawn up or are in the process of developing a new
urban plan, and 12 have applied or plan to apply additional participation on
top of the minimum legal requirement. This finding evidences a
considerable effort by these municipal administrations to actively involve
their citizens in the revision of their plans beyond what is required by law.
Keywords: urban planning policies; citizen participation; master urban
plan; urban legislation; spanish cities.
Submitted: 04/09/2022
Accepted: 23/03/2023
Published: 19/07/2023

1. Introduction
1.1. The importance of involving citizens in public policies
Citizens demand that, in addition to receiving quality public services, local
governments should be receptive to their proposals in defense of general
interest. Civil society increasingly demands greater transparency and
participation in public management and calls for the creation of instruments
that bring citizens closer to the centers of political decision-making, as
evidenced by the continuous presence of the topic in the media (Costa,
2019; Del Campo, 2016; Pacheco, 2021; Pérez-Colomé, 2018; Valiente,
2021; Vidal, 2021).
Citizen participation refers to a set of mechanisms that allow citizens to
contribute to any phase of the public decision-making process, acquiring
effective decision-making power, and politicians and technicians act as
representatives (Cabanelas, 2018). The rise of citizen participation is
contextualized within the crisis of representative democracy, accentuated by
the economic crisis and a certain negative social vision of politics (CIS,
2012). In the last 20 years, this has led to the emergence of civic movements
that demand changes to the current model of decision-making and demand
greater citizen prominence in all public actions that concern them.1
Those governments who support participatory democracy seek to put an end
to the distrust among officials of the decision-making capacity of the
population. The promotion of citizen participation by each public
administration leads to more transparency and legitimacy in its decisions.
Moreover, the inclusion and integration of citizens and other concerned
agents in urban regeneration actions guarantees the sustainable development
of our cities (Rey & Tenze, 2018).
One key participatory democracy action is to involve more citizens in the
city’s management model through decentralization and citizen participation
to better serve the common interest and deepen the democratization of
decisions (Rodríguez, 2007). In turn, this strengthens trust and joint
responsibility for those decisions, building a better future for all.
Participatory democracy is citizen participation (Ramírez, 2014). In this
way, any public administration can be an instrument of regeneration and
democratic deepening, in which the affected citizens play relevant roles in
the management of services. This encourages flexible and efficient formulas
aimed toward community objectives and concerned with results, with a
greater capacity to link the public and private spheres (López & Leal, 2002).
Currently, participation systems are extending beyond the social and
economic spheres, being implemented within the requirements of territorial
planning, in which urban planning is a key tool. The crisis of cities due to
the inadequate response to urban complexity, excessive growth, and social
segregation has rendered obsolete the classical theories of urban planning.
Citizen involvement in the urban planning model has gone from an
informative procedure to being fundamental for the development and
implementation of new urban planning instruments (Rando, 2020).
For Boira (2000), urban planning has a direct influence on the lives of
citizens, and he wonders how their opinions and feelings would influence
the shape of the city. Therefore, the collaboration of citizens and urban
stakeholders could contribute to reducing the failures that some cities suffer.
In this regard, it must be borne in mind that, in terms of participation, public
information is a prerequisite but does not constitute the participatory
practice itself, which in many cases leads to confusion between the right to
participate and the right to be informed (Parés, 2009).
1.2. Legislative initiatives on behalf of participation and
transparency
High democratic stability stimulates the suitable development and
consolidation of citizen associations, which translates into more cooperation
and participation (Herrmann & Klaveren, 2016). The latest Eurobarometer
survey on democracy and citizenship shows that European citizens are today
more aware of their rights, as a result of the efforts of the European Union
(EU) to encourage participation (European Commission, 2020). Citizen
participation has great legislative support: from the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights (United Nations, 1948) to the Maastricht Treaty of the EU
(2012). In Spain, the representativeness of society is established in the
Spanish Constitution, which orders the public authorities to recognize and
facilitate citizen participation. In addition, it promotes the free exercise of
the rights and freedoms of Spanish citizens through the relevant regulations
(Constitución Española, 1978).
For the Council of Europe (1983), the implementation of planning
instruments must be carried out in a functional, democratic, global, and
prospective manner. However, urban planning still has a long way to go in
that regard. The Urban Agenda for the EU encourages the participation and
civic collaboration of all the agents involved to build safe, accessible,
inclusive, green, and quality spaces. It also urges governments to facilitate
the identification of opportunities to improve urban areas (United Nations,
2015). The Spanish Urban Agenda, a non-regulatory strategic document,
pursues the improvement of public space, including citizen participation in
favor of transparency (MITMA, 2019). On the other hand, the Land Law
establishes the right of citizens to participate in urban planning processes
that concern them (Ministerio de Fomento, 2015).
However, some authors argue that in practice, participation has been little
more than rhetoric, both in the EU and in Spain (Navarro et al., 2014). After
all, the Land Law recognizes the right to participate but does not accurately
regulate how to actively participate beyond the minimum consultative
requirements. Participation has come to occupy an important place both in
theoretical reflections and in political discourses related to the
transformation of the city (Velázquez, 2016), but at the same time signifies
a lack of real depth.
1.3. Citizen participation in urban planning
In Spain, the urban management and planning instrument used at municipal
level is called Plan General de Ordenación Urbana (PGOU).2 The PGOU
determines general aspects such as land classification, use restrictions, and
the protection regime. It also includes the arrangement of equipment or the
layout of infrastructures (Farinós et al., 2015). It involves a broad territorial
strategy and foresees the future development of the municipality. To ensure
the success of a new urban plan, it is important to involve the citizens and
main urban stakeholders from the beginning. However, involving citizens is
not an easy task since drafting a PGOU is an administratively complex and
lengthy process in Spain, taking on average between 8 and 10 years.
The aforementioned Land Law establishes that Spanish citizens have the
right to participate in the preparation, processing, and approval of municipal
planning instruments, to be informed, to receive an audience and to exercise
actions, to make petitions, to initiate procedures and popular consultations
and to submit suggestions, complaints or claims (Ministerio de Fomento,
2015). The urban legislation provides for a regulated period of public
information during the drafting process of the PGOU to improve the
document and help the citizen consensus through the presentation of
suggestions, complaints, and proposals. However, this process is not
sufficient to effectively incorporate citizen demands, since it is foreseen as
supervision after the drafted text. In the best of cases, if the drafting
technicians incorporated the citizen complaints, which are not legally
binding, the citizenry would be able to qualify some specific aspect of the
PGOU, but the Law does not oblige or predispose to participation in the
previous decision-making period fundamental to a plan.
1.4. Objective and hypotheses
This paper aims to ascertain the degree to which the largest Spanish cities
have used citizen participation in urban planning. It also aims to define
which cities and to what degree have involved their citizens in public
decision-making as an expression of a desire for transparency. For this
purpose, the revisions of the PGOUs of 25 Spanish municipalities with more
than 215,000 inhabitants are analyzed, in the period of the last 20 years.
Even though participation is increasingly required at the international,
national, and local level, some cities still involve their citizens exclusively
through the minimum participation legally required. This participation is
based on complaints and suggestions submitted by citizens during the public
information period. That is to say, they merely develop a consultative
participation. This participation model is not enough to incorporate citizens
in territorial analysis or the generation of urban proposals, which would
require more active participation. Thus, certain large city councils in Spain
have taken a step beyond the norm in favor of citizen participation that
reflects the feelings of the affected population.
2. Methodology: case study selection
The case studies were selected and classified according to three parameters:
population, planning review status, and type of citizen participation during
the drafting of their PGOU (Figure 1).
Figure 1: Methodology used to select the Spanish cities for the study

Source: Authors (2022)

Population data were obtained from the 2020 Spanish census of the 8,131
municipalities (INE, 2020). Classified from largest to smallest, the data set
of the current study has been limited to the 25 cities with the largest number
of inhabitants.
The next step involved identifying which of the 25 cities have revised their
PGOU in the last 20 years. Based on the public information about the
PGOU that each city has on its website, the appropriate classification was
made. We found that seven of the cities have not reviewed their PGOU in
the last 20 years and 18 have.
In the third step, cities that carried out a participatory process beyond the
consultative one established by law were identified. All the legal
documentation related to the PGOUs available on the online municipal
portals was reviewed. A content analysis of the memorandums of the
PGOUs was carried out to examine the drafting and participatory processes.
It was noted that in the case of the municipalities that developed
participatory processes, the majority also posted information about them on
the municipal web pages. We assume that, due to the additional work
undertaken above what is strictly required by law and the need for
disclosure to successfully develop the participatory processes, the
municipalities considered it mandatory to disclose the results of the
processes online.
Finally, the participatory processes were examined to classify the different
types of participation. In addition to the official information available in the
memorandums of the PGOUs and on the municipal transparency portals of
the institutions involved, the secondary data were complemented by
qualitative information extracted from interviews with municipal
technicians and technicians from some of the teams involved in
participatory processes. To triangulate the information, news in local
newspapers referring to the revision of the PGOUs and their participatory
processes were reviewed.
The participatory processes carried out in these cities reinforce citizen
involvement in the diagnosis of municipal urban problems, provide more
suggestions and new perspectives, and promote the improvement and
consensus of the outcome PGOU document. In this way, a more transparent
and better accepted PGOU is achieved in the immediate future.

3. Results
3.1. Population analysis of Spanish municipalities
The municipalities studied, representing the 25 most populated
municipalities, are shown on the map of Spain (Figure 2).
Figure 2: Selection of municipalities

Source: Authors based on the INE 2020

3.2. Planning status of the selected municipalities

Documentation of each selected municipality was studied to determine
whether it had reformulated its PGOU since 2001. The phases of revision of
a Spanish urban planning document include a pre-diagnosis or previous
studies (not mandatory), writing the Advancement of the PGOU with
mandatory public exposure, and finally, adaptation of the document for the
Initial, Provisional, and then Definitive Approval by the city council. In
addition, the final document must be submitted to the regional urban
authorities to be examined and, in the positive case, definitively approved.
The selected municipalities showed different levels of planning and
development, as reported below (Figure 3).
Figure 3: Selected Spanish municipalities categorized according to planning
revision status and population
Source: Authors (2022)

Among the 25 selected cities, 18 (72%) had reviewed their urban plan
between 2001 and 2021 or were in the process of reviewing it at the time of
the study, while the remaining seven cities (28%) had not. Additionally,
eight cities from the first group (44% of the total) have had their new PGOU
definitively approved and come into effect. In five of the selected cities
(28%), the document is in the drafting phase after the presentation of the
Advancement. In the remaining five cities (28%) the reformulation of their
PGOU is in an early stage of development, with no binding data currently
available.
In accordance with both the regulatory tradition and the common objectives
described in the PGOUs, the commonly accepted validity of a PGOU should
be around 15 years. Consequently, it must be noted that seven of the studied
cities have not reviewed their Master Urban Plan in the last 20 years, and
those currently reviewing it have been doing so for a long time. Some cities,
such as Alicante and Cartagena, have a PGOU in effect since 1987,
representing a very outdated urban planning model. There is a notable
variation in the timelines of the review process in the 18 municipalities that
have reviewed or are reviewing their PGOUs in the last 20 years (Figure 4).
Figure 4: Timeline of the reviewing process of PGOUs of the 18 Spanish
municipalities selected as case studies
Source: Authors (2022)

Although Seville, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, and Terrassa began

reformulating their urban plan before 2001, they have been included in this
study because the final approval was given within the timeframe studied. It
was noted that some cities devote a long time to pre-diagnosis studies, such
as Bilbao and Vitoria, whose studies lasted 12 years, with a shorter
subsequent period to write their PGOU. On the contrary, in Las Palmas de
Gran Canaria, Valladolid, and Mallorca, it took 15, eight and seven years,
respectively, to draft the final PGOU for reasons discussed below.
3.3. Citizen participation throughout the revision of the
PGOU
The type of citizen participation in the definition of new urban planning has
different nuances, as mentioned above. For this study, a distinction has been
made between participation required by law and supplementary participation
(Figure 5).
Figure 5: Type of citizen participation carried out throughout the revision
of the PGOUs in between 2001 and 2021 in the 25 largest Spanish cities
Source: Authors (2022)

3.4. Minimum citizen participation in urban planning as the

only citizen expression
In Spain, the minimum mandatory citizen participation in urban planning is
specified in the Land Law.3 It is essentially limited to information and
compilation of suggestions, complaints, or claims throughout the public
information periods. Four cities out of the 18 that have revised their PGOU
have only applied the minimum participation required by law:
1. In Vigo (296,692 inhabitants), a very controversial PGOU was
approved in 2008, only to be declared null by the Supreme Court in
2015 for not having the mandatory environmental assessment
(Ayuntamiento de Vigo, n.d.). In 2019, a new PGOU was published
and opened to public exposure. After that, it was approved by the
Plenary of the Vigo Council in August 2021 and has been followed
by a new public information process.
 2. Las Palmas de Gran Canarias (381,223 inhabitants) began the review
process in 1994 to adapt the PGOU to the new legislation. Although
the Advancement of the PGOU was submitted for public information
on two occasions (one more than required by law), no other
supplementary participation was allowed. That document received
443 complaints. Six years later, the PGOU was initially approved.
After the public information period, the document received 14,662
complaints, so it had to be rewritten to reach provisional approval in
2000. However, since this entire process took place before the Law
of Territorial Planning of the Canary Islands entered into effect in
2000, the draft of the PGOU had to be readapted before its definitive
approval to avoid suspension. The complaints received at that stage
were such that the process had to be restarted. The final approval
was reached in 2012. During this lengthy process, the degree of
citizen participation corresponded to the regulated period of public
information, where social disagreement was demonstrated. In this
case, the lack of agreement with the concerned urban stakeholders
and the lack of legal foresight contributed to the long delay in the
review process.
3. A Coruña (247,604 inhabitants) and Terrassa (223,627 inhabitants)
are two other cities that have developed their new PGOU with the
minimum mandatory participation throughout the public information
periods.
3.5. Supplementary participation in urban planning
Supplementary participation is understood as participation that complements
the minimum legal requirements and reinforces citizen involvement in the
public aspects of urban planning. National law, although conceptually
grandiose on participation, fell short in the requirement to develop active
participation. Thus, some Autonomous Regions and municipalities have
designed regulations at regional or municipal level that deepen the
application of active participatory processes in their territories. With them,
the City Councils can stimulate the collaboration of their concerned citizens
in municipal planning through specific dynamics (Figure 6 and Figure 7).
These participatory actions can be incorporated into each of the different
phases of development of the PGOU and are aimed at citizens. Sometimes
they also add the regulation and promotion of the qualified participation of
experts in urban issues, such as academics, neighborhood associations,
promoters, NGOs, and other interested stakeholders.
The following is a synthesized description of the supplementary
participation processes developed in the cities studied, involving nine case
studies plus a complementary case:
Figure 6: Spanish largest municipalities that have revised their urban
planning with some type of citizen participation

Source: Authors (2022)

1. Seville (691,395 inhabitants) was the first Spanish city to actively

incorporate citizens in the drafting of its PGOU; the review began in
1999 and was approved in 2006. The participation process was
prepared by the Seville Plan Office, created ad-hoc, and integrated
by technicians, experts, professional and neighborhood associations,
citizens, and other urban stakeholders. Previous studies helped in the
preparation of the Advancement, called Plan a la Vista (2000-2001).
At that time, public debates were held with citizens and specialists.
Once the Advancement (2002) was approved, the document was
published and disseminated through various channels (talks, videos,
posters, etc.). Subsequently, several parallel and supplementary
participatory processes were carried out on specific topics that
emerged from the working groups. Once the PGOU was initially
approved, a public information period was opened with a general
exhibition, several specific expositions in civic centers, and a
neighborhood information point. In addition, cycles of talks,
conferences, announcements, and various meetings were held
involving professional, technical, and neighborhood associations,
promoters, the media, etc. (Ayuntamiento de Sevilla, 2007). The
willingness of the Sevillian City Council to involve citizens in both
 the analysis of the territory and during the preparation of the
document, as well as to facilitate the communication and explanation
of the new PGOU.
2. Another example of supplementary participation is found in Málaga
(578,460 inhabitants), which approved its PGOU a ten years ago,
and included citizen participation after the publication of the
Advancement (2005). The process involved engaging with
individuals and neighbors of the Municipal District Boards
(Ayuntamiento de Málaga, 2010). After the Initial Approval (2006),
the complaints from citizens were also collected (Cardador, 2016).
3. The review of the PGOU of Palma de Mallorca (422,587
inhabitants) began in 2010 with the campaign Imagine Palma. At
that time, a first public information process in various media
(newspapers, web, Official Gazette of the Community, etc.) was
opened and citizens were invited to submit suggestions (Ajuntament
de Palma, 2012). The drafting team was integrated into the Revision
Office of the Department of Urban Planning and Housing. Prior to
the Advancement, in 2013, an ‘Analysis and Previous Studies’ report
was drafted. Various activities were carried out to promote citizen
participation during this phase: a website was created to make
contributions, there was a question contest, another for micro-stories,
and a last one for short stories among schoolchildren. At the same
time, a commission was created to plan sectorial meetings with
social and professional agents, with a total of 70 representatives
(Ajuntament de Palma, 2013). An external company drafted the
Advancement, which was submitted in 2014 to be initially approved
by the city council. This process could be summarized by saying that
citizen participation was adapted to what the law requires and, in
addition, citizens and experts were actively included in the analysis
phase during the drafting of the Advancement.
4. In Bilbao (350,184 inhabitants), the review of the PGOU began in
2006. The city council set up a PGOU Office with the collaboration
of municipal technicians and an external drafting team of architects,
town planners, and communicators. In the pre-diagnosis phase
(2009-2010), some activities were carried out to identify key aspects
of the municipality through participatory methodologies. All of this
culminated in the Participatory Diagnosis document (2012-2013).
The Pre-Advancement phase (2016-2017) involved deliberative
sessions, working groups, activities aimed at specific profiles (young
people, children, university students, adults with training,
professionals), sectorial working tables, online surveys, etc.
(Ayuntamiento de Bilbao, 2017). The Advancement was submitted
for public consultation in 2018 and was finally approved in 2020. It
should be noted that the Bilbao City Council organized an ambitious
 and very complete participatory model with a wide variety of
channels that included face-to-face participation in the previous
diagnostic phases. These efforts consolidated Bilbao as one of the
leading transparent cities (Ayuntamiento de Bilbao, 2011).
5. The Advancement of the PGOU of Valladolid (299,265 inhabitants)
was presented in 2012 with a two-month public information period.
The document was finally approved by the city council in 2015.
However, in 2016 that decision was reversed to adapt the document
to the new regional legislation and to incorporate new contributions
made in the public debate process Thinking and Living Valladolid
(Ayuntamiento de Valladolid, 2015). The citizen participation
process consisted of an open-access discussion group to think about
a city model with citizens and professional associations. After the
Initial Approval in 2017, there was a new public information
process. Subsequently, the PGOU was initially approved in 2019
and, definitively, in 2020. In Valladolid, the regional legislative
change was an opportunity to incorporate supplementary citizen
participation. This situation shows the interest of its municipal
politicians in involving the concerned urban stakeholders in their
decisions.
6. Gijón (271,717 inhabitants) had a quite disorganized urban design
resulting from rapid population growth and poor urban planning
(Latorre & Solá, 2016). In 2005 and 2011, there were two attempts
to approve a new PGOU, but the courts annulled both. The 2011
attempt was annulled by the Supreme Court for not submitting
“reports of fundamental importance” to public participation (Moro,
2015). After this setback, in 2013, the Official Association of
Architects of Asturias prepared a public consultation and citizen
participation process to develop a pre-diagnosis report and general
planning strategies for the municipality of Gijón. This also gave way
to a citizen survey. Both documents served as a basis to begin the
revision and publication of the Priorities Document in 2014, an
urban instrument that mixes the traditional Advancement and a
Municipal Strategic Plan. At that time, neighborhood participation
activities, contacts with social entities and a public exhibition of the
document were developed. During the drafting of the PGOU there
was a continuous participation process through debates,
observations, assessments, and suggestions. There were two periods
of public consultation after the Initial Approval in 2016. Five
working groups were established to facilitate the exchange of ideas
between citizens, city council officers, and the drafting team, with
the aim of improving the urban proposals (UTE Ordenación Urbana
de Gijón, 2018). There was also a mandatory period for presenting
 complaints during the public consultation. With all this information,
the document was adapted to include the submissions obtained
through the public consultation, and it was resubmitted for public
consultation in 2017 before being provisionally approved by the city
council in 2018. In this review of the PGOU, the participatory
diagnosis and collection of suggestions established in the public
exhibition favored the interrelation among citizens, technical
professionals, and municipal politicians.
7. Vitoria-Gasteiz (253,996 inhabitants) incorporated the vision of
urban stakeholders from a Previous Study phase (2009), during
which there were sectorial working groups of specialized
participation. Subsequently, before drafting the Advancement, a
shared Diagnosis was carried out in 2013 with different citizen
profiles. Activities were held in civic centers and rural areas, youth
workshops, citizen forums, a World Café, and information sessions
all over the city. In a subsequent phase, carried out in 2016, although
it was not directly open to citizen participation, experts and
municipal technicians made proposals. Once the document was
presented to the city council, another participatory cycle was
developed in 2019 during its public consultation to contrast the
proposed urban solutions with the citizens. In this way, the Vitoria-
Gasteiz City Council made a great effort to arrive at a social
consensus that would allow it to approve the plan, even making a
second participatory round.
8. The revision of the PGOU of Oviedo (219,910 inhabitants) began
with the elaboration of a Priorities Document (Ayuntamiento de
Oviedo, n.d.). This report was both a preliminary analysis and
Advancement of the PGOU, which included the minimum legal
citizen participation (with compilation of complaints) and a
supplementary participation program (neighborhood meetings for
debate and generation of proposals).
9. The review process of the PGOU of Cartagena (216,108 inhabitants)
is currently ongoing. To draft the Advancement, a participatory
process took place during the first months of 2019. Citizen
workshops were held for diagnosis and generation of proposals, as
well as technical working groups and interviews with experts,
representatives of the city, and municipal politicians. The
Advancement was presented to the public two months after the end
of the participation process. Compared to other cities, the
participatory period was relatively short due to the tight schedule
imposed by the city council. The quality of the participatory work in
formulating and compiling citizen proposals was notable. However,
not all these proposals were subsequently reflected in the final
 Advancement presented to the city council.
10. It is worth mentioning the case of Madrid, which made an attempt to
start the review process of its PGOU before being stopped. The
Madrid City Council began the review of the PGOU in 2011,
reserving participation to specialists in urban matters without
expressly including civil society. Specialized institutional and
technical participation took place in 2012-2013 through working
groups with representatives of neighborhood and professional
associations, trade unions, urban experts, universities, municipal
politicians, etc. (Ayuntamiento de Madrid, 2013). In addition, the
Regional Federation of Neighborhood Associations of Madrid
prepared a document that included the demands of the neighbors
(Dirección General de Revisión del Plan General, 2013). Although
the municipal plenary approved the Advancement documents in
2013, the process did not continue due to the political changes in the
subsequent years (Gracia, 2014).
Figure 7: Supplementary Citizen Participation in the different phases of the
drafting of the PGOUs in the 9 largest Spanish municipalities who have
already applied it

Source: Authors (2022)

3.6. Revision of the PGOU currently in an early phase

process
Among the large Spanish cities examined, five are currently in a very early
phase of revision of their PGOU, where participation has not yet taken place
or is not at a stage to be able to assess it (Figure 8). This is the case with
Murcia (459,403 inhabitants). In 2018, the Polytechnic University of
Cartagena prepared an urban planning report to serve as a basis for the
revision of its PGOU. The city council also signed an agreement with the
University to create an observatory of the PGOU, with the aim of continuing
the revision process (Comunidad Autónoma de la Región de Murcia, 2020).
Figure 8: Spanish largest municipalities that have just begun the revision of
their Master Urban Plans

Source: Authors (2022)

In Alicante (337,482 inhabitants), a PGOU was provisionally approved in
2009, which was judicially rejected by the Court of Alicante in 2015 due to
corruption cases in the Alicante City Hall (Martínez, 2011). The
municipality restarted the revision again in 2019, but there are still no
verifiable data. In Córdoba (326,039 inhabitants), the processes to review its
PGOU began in 2016. Partial revisions of the current plan continue without
advancing toward a new proposal, due to the lack of municipal consensus
(Ganemos Córdoba, 2017).
In 2020, the revision of the PGOU of Elche (234,765 inhabitants) began, to
adapt it to new regional laws and to the Sustainable Development Goals of
the 2030 Agenda. A public consultation was launched on the city council's
web portal to submit proposals prior to the review. The survey closed in
January 2021, and the local government has expressed its willingness to
discuss the city model with neighborhood and professional associations,
collectives, and trade unions. A similar situation is underway in Granada
(233,648 inhabitants); the review began with a participative diagnosis
delivered in 2019, and the drafting is ongoing after the contracting of
external technical services in 2021 (Fernández, 2017).

4. Discussion
From the results obtained on the different processes analysed, some global
considerations can be extracted as follow.
Figure 9: Relationship between the municipality's population and the
revision status in the 25 largest Spanish cities by population

Source: Authors (2022)

This study has found that, among the 25 largest Spanish cities, four of the
five most populated cities have not carried out a review process of their
PGOU in the last 20 years. Based on the number of inhabitants, Figure 9
shows that more than 7 million citizens of large Spanish cities (55%) have
not been able to participate in the revision of their PGOU. Although some
have been able to do so in more limited planning mechanisms that are not
the subject of this article (e.g., partial, special plans or other forms of
planning that do not affect the entire city). This may be due to these cities
finding it more difficult to update their urban plans because of their size.
This possibly slows down the progress of citizen participation in major
issues such as municipal territorial planning and the urban future of their
city, which should be addressed by political decision-makers. However, it is
notable that large cities such as Barcelona, which has not revised its PGOU
since 2000, is carrying out innovative participatory processes in smaller-
scale planning instruments.
Among the 18 largest Spanish cities that reviewed their PGOU between
2001 and 2021 or which had a review process underway at the time of this
study, the percentage of municipalities that have used or are applying any
form of citizen participation is quite high: at least 66%, that is 12 out of 18.
Meanwhile, 50% (nine cities) have incorporated participatory processes
focused on citizens and experts in urban planning, and 16.7% (three cities)
have expressed their intention to incorporate it. At the other extreme, 22%
(four cities) have concluded the process with minimal citizen participation;
only advisory participation required by national law. The remaining 11%
(two cities) did not have sufficient information to be evaluated (Figure 10).
Figure 10: Types of participation in the 18 Spanish municipalities selected
as case studies

Source: Authors (2022)

This analysis shows the intention of the majority of Spain's largest city
councils to incorporate citizen participation in their urban planning.
Vitoria-Gasteiz and Bilbao stand out for including active citizen
participation in all stages of development of their PGOU. They have had a
duration and variety of formats that demonstrate the interest of the Basque
Country administrations to engage in these issues. Finally, Seville is notable
for, in addition to the above (consultative and/or dissemination mode), being
a pioneer city in favoring the incorporation of citizen participation in urban
planning in a proactive manner.

5. Conclusion
The findings of this study indicate a real commitment by Spanish municipal
administrations to include citizen participation in their urban policy to meet
their demands. That means strengthening the democratic development of the
communities and promoting the transparency of public administration.
A large majority of the largest Spanish cities have reviewed and updated
their PGOU since 2000. More than half of the cities that have reviewed, or
are in the process of reviewing, their PGOU have incorporated participation
additional to the strictly legal requirements. This demonstrates the
commitment of these councils to encourage the participation of their urban
stakeholders It also indicates that the national law does not respond
correctly to the current needs for citizen participation, which leads to the
appearance of regional or municipal regulations in different territories. This
causes significant differences both in the way participatory processes are
applied and, in the results, obtained. Thus, it is concluded that there is a
need to regulate a common framework that defines and delimits the
minimum participatory processes required in the design of the PGOUs
throughout the country.
The PGOUs that have managed to involve citizens more actively, not only
in the information processes but also in the conception of the document,
have achieved greater transparency, greater public acceptance, and better
implementation of the final document. However, those that have been or are
being reviewed according to the strictly legal participation mechanisms have
been more controversial and difficult to approve due to lack of consensus.
After analyzing this sample of Spain's largest cities (hosting 30% of the total
population of the country), more research is needed. On the one hand, on
municipalities with smaller populations to confirm this positive trend of
including citizen participation beyond what is legally required in Spain. On
the other hand, the outcomes of the cities that have had complementary
citizen participation policies in the development of their PGOU should be
studied in depth. It is essential to build methodological proposals backed by
success stories that consolidate an efficient urban regeneration model
(Paisaje Transversal, 2016). There is still much to be achieved in the
legislative framework and in the planning intervention methodology.
Therefore, public administrations must continue the efforts to correctly
implement new measures to strengthen the involvement of citizens and of
the institutions themselves (Ganuza, 2010).

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1
The most significant citizen movement in Spain was the 15M in 2011,
when citizens rebelled against the corruption of the current political model
calling for financial, fiscal, labor, and environmental reforms and
demanding greater participation and involvement of citizens in true
democracy.
2
This is the Spanish term for "Master Urban Plan".
3
The Land Law of 2015 is a consolidated text of the 2007 Law, which
followed the Law of 1998. In all of them, the description of citizen’s
contribution is similar.