Strategies for limiting and administring low density housing estates in Catalonia

Abstract

The paper explains how during the sixties and seventies of the last century there took place in the
largest Spanish metropolitan areas a remarkable proliferation of irregular low-density developments
aimed initially to serve as “second homes”. The paper analyzes within the Catalan context the
problems thrown up by such developments and possible strategies for coping with these while also
detailing some of the policies being put into effect for their containment and improvement. To this
end, the work consists of fi ve sections: the fi rst describes both the scale and the main features of
the phenomenon of low-density residential areas in Catalonia; the second analyzes the challenges
derived from this state of affairs and the strategies that have been considered in order to address
these; the third section then sets out the general objectives and policy context of the Law 3 / 2009,
for the Regulation and Improvement of Irregular Low Density Urban Areas, recently approved by the
Catalan parliament; while the fourth offers the law’s urban planning regulations and strategies and
fi nally, the fi fth article describes the economic and fi nancial administrative resources that the law
provides municipalities and landowners with when coping with the issue.