TRIBUNE: "EL CRISTO-BUENAVISTA: A SPACE OF OPPORTUNITY FOR OVIEDO".

Author: Juan José Fernández Pereiro

Source: lne.es

ON THE ALTERNATIVES FOR THE URBAN DEVELOPMENT INTERVENTION ON THE LAND OF THE FORMER HUCA

There is some concern about three obsolete industrial sites in Oviedo: the San Claudio factory, the Gas factory and the La Vega factory (with the news of a Protocol signed a few days ago). All of them need to clarify their destination, but they also require urban planning, management and, above all, a definition of their uses.

In the same way, already with the passing of the years, it seems necessary a decisive intervention on the space of Cristo-Buenavista given the state of structural, environmental and building deterioration of the buildings and their surroundings, once lost its sanitary functionality with the transfer to the new Hospital in December 2014; although the donation center and the laundry remain.

Until then, it was necessary to maintain the use of the complex for the healthcare activity, although in 2006 a Framework Exchange Agreement had already been signed between interested Administrations, which was extinguished with the passage of time, which provided for the reservation of 20,000 square meters of land building rights for offices for the Social Security Treasury and the Monte Naranco Hospital, for the Covadonga Residence and annexes for the Principality. But this space also had to be arranged with the City Council of Oviedo, which was not a signatory of that agreement.

Subsequently, in 2015, the Principality of Asturias made a feasibility study contemplating three alternatives that was submitted to a first "participatory process", i.e., to public information. A Protocol was then signed between the Principality of Asturias and the City Council of Oviedo, dated April 13, 2016, in which the phases of action and their timetable were indicated.

After a new citizen participatory process for this area, an International Ideas Competition was convened from which a good winning solution emerged that mixed various new uses, including residential ones. The mandatory partial revision of the General Plan was then initiated for this delimitation and the drafting of a Special Plan that would organize the area and establish the uses and uses. This procedure referred to, however, today has not gone beyond the initial environmental phase and the so-called Priorities Document for suggestions (May 2019), that is, the most embryonic phase, pending the next Initial Approval, still pending for new allegations. In addition, the idea of including it in the Revision of the General Plan of Oviedo, at the discretion of its drafters and the Municipal Corporation, arose later on.

At the same time, the owners of the properties have expressed their different interests in the new configuration, which may not coincide. Thus, the Ministry of the Interior decided not to move the current police headquarters and the City Council opted to move forward with the reconstruction of the bullring, while the Social Security Treasury sought a greater lucrative use resulting from the new planning and the Principality of Asturias tried to give a solution to the whole based on the current Protocol, signed with the City Council of Oviedo, as acting urban planning administrations.

Already in the proposal of the winning idea of the competition, the conservation of some buildings and their rehabilitation was proposed, and the possibility of having some provisional - "in the meantime"- and anticipated uses, which would coincide with the revised planning, was advanced: thus, the Truébano park, and some parking lots and paths have already been built.

In recent years, coinciding also with the pandemic of Covid-19, the action has only been delayed while waiting for a better definition and its utilitarian destination. Although progress has already been made in the participatory processes practiced, in the Ordinary Strategic Environmental Assessment, approved (Resolution March 2, 2020), in the suggestions received to the Priorities Document, in the consideration of the various uses and, above all, with the Economic Feasibility Report and urban integration for its execution, there is still, however, no urban planning that is processed and its materialization is achieved.

From the beginning, public opinions have been heard about the most appropriate destination for these lands without speculative character, more of city equipment, with a good part dedicated to university uses, residential, etc., ideas that were already suggested in the two participatory processes; however, only the economic viability will allow to carry out the regeneration of all that space, whether it comes out of the public budget, also European funds or financed in part by itself, with the contribution of the much-treated public-private concept.

Today, it would be good to consider whether the proposal of the winning idea HUCAMP! of the drafting team -Juan Tur, Alexandra Delgado and Daniel Cortizo- adapts, and if the solution is more to preserve the existing; for this it would be necessary to rethink the delimitation and treatment of the buildings that it is decided to keep, with a more rehabilitative proposal. This second, more current approach, would be done in consultation with the technical drafters.

Currently it makes sense to apply the theory of resilience, regeneration, renovation and urban transformation, even the gentrification of neighborhoods and as an innovative district for this space of El CristoBuenavista, based on an approved proposal and, if possible, agreed and developed by a Special Plan of Interior Reform. This current approach, with a more reduced delimitation, which does not include the bullring or the National Police barracks, can also be adapted to the land owned by the Principality of Asturias and the Social Security Treasury, and in accordance with the winning planning proposal. In addition, for its execution, the corresponding Urbanization Project will be added.

In conclusion, far from being a diatribe, there are three alternatives for this area of the city of Oviedo. The first, which seems already weakened, would be to continue with the development of the initial proposal, broad delimitation, which included 23 hectares. The second would involve reformulating the smaller delimitation, without the bullring and barracks, and in any case, more rehabilitative and sustainable of some buildings and suppression of others, assigning new uses and uses to the owners of the property. The third alternative would be to include it in the revision of the PGO, which would take a long time.

Finally, it is possible to add an abbreviated form to carry it out that is that of the Concerted Action, by Agreement and according to the foreseen in article 19 and corresponding of the TROTU, Legislative Decree 1/2004 of April 22nd.

Once any of these options for new planning has been decided and approved, the management phase will have to begin by any of the systems of action, with its execution: direct, by a Collaborating Urbanistic Entity, or by an Urbanistic Society. In any case, urban planning, as far as its practice is concerned, is, above all, transformation, otherwise it is a "dead drawing" (J. García Bellido). It also fulfills a public and social function, under the tutelage of the Administration.

Politics is, in the words of G. Leibniz, the "art of the possible, of innovating, of arriving at the best". Here, in this part of the city of Oviedo, it can be achieved as soon as possible.