**1. Approach, Objectives, and Methodology**

As several other works have already highlighted, since the mid-20th century, in Spain, there has been a strong connection between economic growth and that of the building sector. At times, this has appeared to be so close that it has even led some authors to speak of Spanish property capitalism [1,2]. There is little doubt that this has produced an expansive, speculative, and unsustainable urban model and has resulted in a frenetic rhythm of urbanisation [3,4].

Urban planning and development have been the main instruments used to catalyse expectations for economic growth, and are almost exclusively based on the consumption of land [5]. This has occurred at a time when the expectations for capital gains generated by urbanisation have proved greater than those associated with any other form of economic activity [6]. The city and the production of urban products have therefore become a mechanism for the absorption of capital surpluses for their subsequent integration within the circuit of accumulation [7,8].

This article suggests the existence of a relationship between the characteristics of urban planning, the models of urbanisation that underlie them, and the resulting urbanisation processes. To demonstrate this, we have outlined the main proposals and approaches of the urban Master Plans of two medium-sized Catalan cities—Lleida and Manresa—and analysed their development and the dynamics of their urbanisation and growth.

These case studies were selected based on the following criteria: Firstly, both of the cities studied have a certain demographic size, perform the function of being local capitals, and play a significant role in the territorial articulation of their respective areas of inland Catalonia; secondly, in Catalonia, great efforts have been made to review urban planning procedures in this kind of city since the transfer of competencies relating to urban planning and its regulation from Spain's central government to the autonomous regional government

**Citation:** Bellet Sanfeliu, C. The Evolution of Urban Planning in Medium-Sized Catalan Cities (1979–2019). *Urban Sci.* **2021**, *5*, 36. https://doi.org/10.3390/ urbansci5020036

Academic Editors: Juan Manuel Parreño Castellano, María José Piñeira-Mantiñán and Jesús Manuel González Pérez

Received: 19 February 2021 Accepted: 16 March 2021 Published: 13 April 2021

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**Copyright:** © 2021 by the author. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/).

in 1978; and, thirdly, both municipalities—Lleida and Manresa—have had three different Master Plans approved since the first democratic municipal elections held in 1979. These make it possible to characterise the evolution of urban planning in these cities during different periods of Spain's recent democratic history.

To establish the context, we shall first characterise urban planning in Spain and Catalonia through a bibliographic and documentary analysis, which will be cited in the second section of this article. For this analysis, we established three different periods: 1979–1991, 1992–2007, and 2008–2019, as shown in Figure 1. This delimitation is based on the evolution of the dynamics of the real estate cycle [9].

**Figure 1.** Property dynamics in Spain and Catalonia and urban planning periods. Housing units built in Spain (**left axis**) and Catalonia (**right axis**) (data from https://www.mitma.gob.es/vivienda (accessed on 23 March 2019) and http://habitatge. gencat.cat/ca/dades/estadistiques\_publicacions/ (accessed on 20 March 2019).

To study urban planning in Manresa and Lleida, we consulted the local urban planning archives of their respective provinces (Barcelona and Lleida), where we examined the different Master Plans and all relevant approved planning documentation since 1979. Data were also obtained from the Censuses of Population and Housing issued by Spain's *Instituto Nacional de Estadística* (INE—National Institute of Statistics) for the years 1981, 1991, 2001, and 2011, and from the *Padrón Municipal de Habitantes* (Local Population Register) of 2019. This information was also used to help us illustrate the growth dynamics of these municipalities and their respective urban areas.

Following the approval of the Spanish Constitution in 1976, there was a process of decentralisation of competences relating to regional planning, urban planning, and housing, with these being transferred to the different Autonomous Communities [10]. This has since resulted in the development of seventeen different frameworks for urban planning policy. Despite certain formal differences, and as previously noted in several other comparative studies [11,12], these remain similar—in both content and structure—to the system that was proposed under the national Land Use and Urban Planning Act, which was passed in 1976 (Royal Decree 1346/1976, of 9 April).

The Land Act of 1976 established a hierarchical structure of municipal planning instruments, amongst which it is possible to highlight the following characteristics:


Another figure characteristic of the planning derived from the Master Plan is the *Plan Especial* (Special Plan). This is the most appropriate figure for undertaking interventions (whether involving reform or improvement) within the existing city. Special Plans are also appropriate instruments for protecting unique settings: historic centres, spaces of historical and artistic interest, and spaces of natural, environmental, or scenic interest, amongst others.

#### **2. The Evolution of Urban Planning in Spain and Catalonia: 1979–2019**

Despite the existence of certain differences in the urban planning policies carried out in different Autonomous Communities since the transfer of competences from the central government, there still exists a general Spanish framework [11,12]. In this section, we shall contextualise and characterise the evolution of urban planning from the time of the first democratic local councils (1979) through to the present day. We shall also explain the changes that have occurred in the city model on which urban planning was based in the different periods that we have previously identified.
