**1. Introduction**

Megaprojects have become typical elements of today's urbanism around the globe. Cities such as Barcelona (22@), Valencia (Ciutat de les Arts i les Ciències) or Hamburg (Hafencity) have shown how megaprojects are used as an effective tool to reposition themselves within the global competition [1]. However, behind the bright mask of megaprojects, there is often a less appealing story of underestimated costs, construction time and overestimated benefits [2]. There is a "new generation of megaprojects" [3] (p. 761) that is linked to neoliberal logics and marked by the creation of sustainable project images. However, unmasking these concepts often reveals unsustainable practices.

This paper focuses on Santa Cruz Verde 2030, an emerging megaproject in Tenerife (Spain), which was announced in summer 2018 (see Figure 1). The project deals with the conversion of an inner-city oil refinery into a mixed-use urban quarter with a surface area of more than 500,000 square meters. The concept entails a large amount of green spaces, but also housing, tourism and the city's first urban beach [4]. The impacts on the city's urbanism are expected to be considerable. According to other studies, the project will double the city's number of hotel beds and reconfigure the current urban setting significantly [5].

**Citation:** Hübscher, M.; Ringel, J. Opaque Urban Planning. The Megaproject Santa Cruz Verde 2030 Seen from the Local Perspective (Tenerife, Spain). *Urban Sci.* **2021**, *5*, 32. https://doi.org/10.3390/ urbansci5010032

Received: 3 January 2021 Accepted: 13 March 2021 Published: 17 March 2021

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**Figure 1.** The geographical setting of the oil refinery and the Cabo-Llanos neighborhood, which formed part of the refinery until the 1990s. Own elaboration based on Open Street Map [6] and Grafcan [7].

Until 2020, the urban planning process has been characterized by its exclusiveness, as the two initiating stakeholders, the town hall of Santa Cruz de Tenerife and the refinery's owner, the Compañía Española de Petróleos (CEPSA), have negotiated behind closed doors.

It thus comes as a surprise that in Santa Cruz, only little public discussion about the project has taken place so far. Hence, this study shifts the light from the project's design to the planning process itself, seen through the perspective of relevant urban stakeholders in Santa Cruz. Research on megaprojects has focused on stakeholders that are in charge, but not on those who might be affected indirectly [8] (p. 1537). With this paper, we aim to bridge the gap between "top-down built megaprojects [and] bottom-up perceptions" [9]. Our objective is to understand the local stakeholders' perspective on the megaproject Santa Cruz Verde 2030 using five qualitative interviews with stakeholders from politics, urban planning, the real estate sector and an environmental association. Although the planning of the megaproject has just begun and the final outcome of the process might be uncertain, we argue that now is the time to start the analysis from a scientific point of view. As several planning steps are pending [10], there is still the opportunity to influence the project and contribute to a more sustainable outcome, which is our research motivation.

This article presents the following structure. Section 2 sets up a theoretical framework for analyzing the chosen megaproject. In Section 3, the case study is introduced. Section 4 describes the applied methods. The fifth part of this article presents the empirical results and emphasizes planning and image. In the final section, we discuss the findings and put them into their context of the current discourse.
