The Pact for Ciutat Vella proposes a roadmap until 2035 with 187 actions

The mayor, Jaume Collboni, presented the Pacte per Ciutat Vella on March 5 at the Saló de Cent, a collective roadmap drafted with the participation of neighborhood, commercial, cultural, and social organizations. Amics de La Rambla has actively participated in the development of this Pacte per Ciutat Vella. Mayor Collboni thanked the representatives present for their work: "During this time, you have been imagining the future of Ciutat Vella, its neighborhoods, focused above all on one idea, which I believe is the prevailing one after all these work sessions and the conversations you have had and after a very long process of internal debate, which has precisely been the right to live in Ciutat Vella. The right to be citizens of Barcelona, to be neighbors in the neighborhood where many of you were born, where you have grown up, and where you still want to live." The mayor described the document as "a true social contract with 187 actions that prioritize people, public space, and community bonds, in a district that is the heart of the city." He added: "The aim is to turn Ciutat Vella into a district where people can live, strengthening coexistence and countering hate speech, and also to drive the second major transformation of the district."

A strategic document that gathers the contributions of the district's citizen universe

The 2025-2035 strategic document of the Pacte per Ciutat Vella was presented today. It captures the process of debate and the formulation of guidelines and priorities for the Ciutat Vella district, pivoting on the key goal of making Ciutat Vella a habitable and inclusive area, with safe, high-quality public spaces, putting people and community at the center, and reinforcing its economic, cultural, and labor centrality within Barcelona.

To achieve this, in recent months fifteen work sessions and almost 25 interviews and meetings with key agents for the diagnosis and definition of strategic axes, actions, and projects have been held, involving more than 230 organizations, jointly defining a roadmap with 187 actions for the coming years in Ciutat Vella, structured around four pillars: people, public space, economy, and connection.

Housing rehabilitation, policies to recover tourist apartments for residential use, and opening educational facilities up to community use as priorities

In the people's sphere, the roadmap sets as priorities the definition of a housing rehabilitation plan, addressing tourist accommodations, and making educational facilities multi-purpose for community use, among other important measures.

Specifically, in the field of housing, priority will be given to promoting housing rehabilitation policies, adapting them to climate conditions and with special attention to vulnerable groups. In this regard, it is proposed to develop the Ciutat Vella Housing Rehabilitation Plan with a 2035 horizon, based on a study of the situation, pathologies, and conservation status of the district's housing stock. For context, note that in the central district, the average age of buildings is 112 years, whereas in other districts it is below 80 years.

Data also shows that the percentage of owner-occupied housing is 29.3%, while in the city of Barcelona as a whole, it is 51.1%, and a significant part of the residential stock is under official protection: the Ciutat Vella district accounts for 19.5% of the protected housing in the city, although it only represents 6.8% of the population.

The measures proposed in the Pacte per Ciutat Vella also aim to generate policies that address tourist accommodation and its impact on the available residential stock in the district, to improve access to residential housing, and in line with the City Government's announcement to eradicate tourist-use housing in the city by 2028.

In terms of education, the strategic document highlights the importance of policies to prevent early school leaving and support educational success through strengthening skills and the offer of vocational training. It also incorporates the challenge of strengthening the multi-functionality and community role of educational facilities as neighborhood assets, for open and safe activities.

As action lines within social and health action, it points to the need to promote a comprehensive social and health action plan to address key aspects of social cohesion in the district such as child poverty, unwanted loneliness, homelessness, mental health, or addictions; and proposes working to increase sports practice as a tool to enhance health and social cohesion, among other measures.

In the field of culture and heritage, efforts are underway to strengthen the new Rambla as a cultural axis of the city once its current renovation is completed, and to make the rehabilitation of the old Hospital de la Santa Creu a new hub of central neighborhood facilities, turning it into the cultural lung of the Raval.

Reviewing urban planning regulations as a starting point for a profound transformation of Ciutat Vella, towards new urban centrality, livable for residents and open to the seafront

In the second pillar, public space, the strategic document of the Pacte per Ciutat Vella proposes reviewing current urban planning regulations as a lever for the transformation of Ciutat Vella, incorporating the improvement of the residential stock, public space, and the recovery and promotion of facilities for mixed uses and the strengthening of internal cross-cutting relationships. The proposal, looking ahead ten years, is to develop a new urban development strategy for Ciutat Vella, recognizing and valuing public space as a unifying force for neighborhoods and an element of social cohesion, as well as a connector with the whole city and metropolitan area.

The goal is to drive the rehabilitation of the housing stock and promote affordable housing, favor mixed uses and internal and cross-cutting mobility with other areas in planning, while ensuring green spaces and facilities for residents, street or lighting improvements, and boosting the district's connection with the seafront, port, and beaches.

In this area, measures are also included for a preventive and community-based approach to security and public spaces, with actions to boost mediation, prevention, and awareness-raising, in addition to police action. The commitment to coexistence is one of the keys of the Pact.

Also in the area of public space, it is proposed to prioritize actions over the next few years to improve urban trees and the diversity of green cover, expand the network of climate shelters in the district and shaded areas, and to work on the climate adaptation of public spaces and facilities.

The economic axis proposes prioritizing measures to foster the diversity and quality of commerce and activities, and to boost training and employment in the district

In the economic area, work is underway on a Pact for Commerce in Ciutat Vella, on commercial regulation and planning under the new usage plan, and to promote employment and economic diversification.

The Pact for Commerce in Ciutat Vella aims to explore public-private collaboration strategies that will value and promote the unique, high-quality businesses that strengthen Ciutat Vella's commercial identity. In this area, regulation and planning are also key, undertaken with the new usage plan of the district, initially approved in summer 2025, aiming to avoid commercial monoculture, foster diversity and quality in economic activity, and speed up responses to disruptive phenomena such as the rise of new commercial formats or the impact of tourist mobility on Ciutat Vella's commercial landscape.

On employment, the document prepared with organizations prioritizes generating quality jobs, leveraging emerging sectors and revaluing traditional professions, fostering the recovery of artisan trades and those linked to strategic sectors such as the blue economy, making use of synergies with the Port of Barcelona and the future Maritime Technology Park. There is also a need to deploy a digital skills plan, organize employment networks drawing on the district's community fabric, and strengthen the social and solidarity economy as a route towards self-employment.

Connection as a component of cohesion and boosting positive aspects of the district

In the fourth pillar, connection, the strategic document of the Pacte per Ciutat Vella proposes launching the "Ciutat Vella: family territory" plan to consolidate the district as a family-friendly environment. The cycle of conversations between identities "Pact Dialogues" will also be launched to reinforce coexistence among diverse identities, as well as projects to increase sports practice or promote historical memory, with the ultimate goal of strengthening community and the sense of pride and belonging to the district, overcoming linguistic, administrative, and labor barriers, with Catalan as a meeting language.

In this area, tools will be created to present Ciutat Vella in a positive light, as well as projects that strengthen the associative and community fabric, such as the revival of the Ciutat Vella Awards or others to increase sports practice as a factor in community cohesion. In addition, efforts will be made to design a plan to support associations and to increase participation and community physical spaces in order to give more room to association and citizen participation projects.

The Pacte per Ciutat Vella highlights the Rambla renovation and the Neighborhood Plan as strategic opportunities and transformations to be leveraged

The Pacte per Ciutat Vella also includes the Rambla renovation and the Neighborhood Plan for the whole district as strategic opportunities and transformations for the coming years.

With an investment of €55.6M, the urban transformation of la Rambla is the first step for la Rambla to become a new civic corridor that connects the Gòtic and Raval neighborhoods with improved accessibility, a unique and more organized food offering, commerce that regains its uniqueness and proximity, and a renewed and strengthened cultural programming and presence at the city's most emblematic promenade- all based on the new usage plan and public-private collaboration. The new Rambla serves as an example of the intersection between the district's neighborhoods and the city and the metropolitan area, and the four Pact axes: people, public space, economy, and connection.

The strategic document for the new configuration of Ciutat Vella district also emphasizes the crucial role of the Ciutat Vella Neighborhood Plan 2025-2028, which, for the first time this term, extends to all four neighborhoods of the district and is complemented by investment from the first call of the Generalitat de Catalunya's Neighborhoods and Villas Plan.

It also envisages a monitoring and evaluation system to ensure that actions taken are carried out with coherence, transparency, and adaptability, strengthening collaborative governance among institutions, social agents, and citizens. To make this possible, the Pacte per Ciutat Vella will have two governance bodies: the Advisory Council of the Pacte per Ciutat Vella and a Monitoring Committee, and it relies on the essential role of the municipal company Foment de Ciutat as its operational body.

Finally, the Ciutat Vella Lab will be launched, in collaboration with academic institutions and other key district agents, functioning as an observatory to monitor sociodemographic, economic, and urban evolution and, at the same time, as a platform for open knowledge and public innovation.