Definitively approved the new Ciutat Vella Uses Plan

The Plenary of the Municipal Council has definitively approved the new Special Urban Planning Scheme for the regulation of public gathering activities, food retail, tourist services, and other activities in the Ciutat Vella district.

The new document unifies regulations for the entire district, triples the number of regulated activities, and implements a regulatory model that better organizes existing activities, reduces regulatory gaps, provides clarity and legal certainty, and strengthens the protection of culture and diversity of uses.

The Plenary of the Municipal Council has today definitively approved the Special Urban Planning Scheme for the regulation of public gathering activities, food retail, tourist services, and other activities in the Ciutat Vella district.

The new Uses Plan involves moving from the two current uses plans (district and La Rambla) to a single regulation for the whole district, with two distinct strategic axes: La Rambla and Via Laietana. The document maintains its objectives to protect the residential fabric and habitability within the district, and seeks to ensure the balance of uses and set clear limits on those activities that generate the most negative impacts. Ciutat Vella has 3,102 registered economic activities throughout the district. Of these, 1,357, or 43.7%, correspond to restaurant activities, and 720 to food retail. Another 498 are tourist establishments and daily non-food commerce. Of the total in the district, by neighborhoods, 1,104 activities are concentrated in the Raval neighborhood, followed by 856 in the Gòtic.

The Uses Plan 2026 proposes a regulatory model that better organizes existing activities, reduces regulatory gaps, provides clarity and legal certainty, and reinforces the protection of culture and the diversity of uses in the district. As a new methodology, activities are grouped according to levels of impact, into three large activity groups, with more detail on activity headings, and in a second layer according to density or concentration, street width, and minimum and maximum activity size.

In total, 180 activity headings regulated by the OMAIIA (Municipal Ordinance of Activities and Comprehensive Environmental Administration Intervention) are regulated, which are considered to have an impact and are classified into 13 activity groups. Definitive approval and lifting of license suspensions. Once definitively approved by the Plenary of the Municipal Council, the new uses plan will come into force once published in the BOPB.

At that time, the current suspensions in the district for new openings of manicure and/or pedicure salons, the sale of products for cannabis cultivation and related items, and retail trade of cases, covers, and accessories for mobile phones-which have been in force since July 2024-will be lifted. With this official publication, the suspension of all new activity authorizations on the Rambla will also be annulled, except for cultural activities such as café-theatre, concert halls, musical shows, seated auditions, audiovisuals, art galleries, theater, circus or similar, artistic and literary creation, museum, archive and library activities, bookstores, and cultural dissemination centers, among others.