en.Wedoany.com Reported - The Madrid City Council's Municipal Strategic Plan (Plan Estratégico Municipal, PEM) has initiated a priority approval process, with the goal of preliminarily passing the document by early next year. This measure, promoted by the Department of Urban Planning, Environment, and Transport, aims to prioritize this file and accelerate the issuance of related reports without shortening statutory deadlines, including those for public information periods.

This priority approval decision follows the earlier declaration by the Community of Madrid, through the Urban Accelerator (Aceleradora Urbanística) on February 13 of this year, that the plan holds special importance. Priority approval means that, within the legal framework, this file will be processed with higher priority than others. The agreement reinforces the priority status of the Municipal Strategic Plan throughout the entire approval process. The priority status of the file should be formally established from the start of the procedure and applied to the management of mandatory and necessary departmental opinions. The City Council will report on this agreement in a plenary session.

The Urban Accelerator is an interdepartmental collegiate body serving as a platform for coordination and dialogue among administrative bodies and stakeholders involved in urban planning and land management. One of its functions is to centralize the application, receipt, and tracking of departmental opinions within its scope of action. This body may also declare planning instruments that could be subject to urgent or priority approval due to their social, economic, or environmental impact as being of special importance to the autonomous community. For the Municipal Strategic Plan, the application and receipt of opinions will be centralized through the computer platform enabled by the Urban Accelerator.

The Municipal Strategic Plan will be the municipal planning instrument replacing the 1997 Madrid General Urban Plan (Plan General de Ordenación Urbana de Madrid). The Madrid City Council is drafting this plan through the New General Plan Office (Oficina del Nuevo Plan General), which coordinates the work on the new urban framework. Drafting of the plan began in 2024, following an extensive preliminary participation process that is still ongoing. On December 19, 2024, the environmental assessment procedure was initiated by submitting the initial strategic document and draft plan to the Ministry of Environment, Agriculture, and Interior of the Community of Madrid. This document lays the foundation for the future order of the city, proposing a balanced growth model with objectives including promoting the construction of more and better-condition housing for Madrid residents and adapting the capital to future urban challenges. The municipal proposal links the formulation of the new plan with Madrid's growth planning, improvement of living conditions, economic development, and social cohesion. The priority approval aims to reduce administrative governance time during the opinion phase without altering the procedural guarantees established by regulations.