Madrid to consolidate urban planning regulations into a single ordinance

The Madrid City Council has taken the first formal step toward creating a single Municipal Urban Planning Ordinance. The Governing Board approved a proposal to submit the future text to a 15-day preliminary public consultation period to gather input from citizens, urban planning professionals, associations, and business organizations.

The initiative aims to consolidate the complex web of regulations currently dispersed across the 1997 General Urban Development Plan and various sectoral ordinances into one unified, clear, and systematic text. This new ordinance will handle detailed regulations, including land use, building conditions, construction, conservation, and aesthetic requirements, as well as interventions on protected assets.

By separating detailed regulation from strategic planning, the city intends to streamline administrative processes. This structural change will allow specific modifications to be processed through the ordinance procedure rather than requiring changes to the broader General Plan, potentially reducing blocked files and shortening processing times. This process will be coordinated with the future Municipal Strategic Plan, which is expected to see its initial approval in the first quarter of 2027.