This Thursday, the plenary session of the Seville City Council gave Real Betis and Sevilla FC carte blanche to expand the activity of their stadiums, as did the Bernabéu in Madrid. After approving – with the votes in favor of the PP, PSOE and Vox – a change in the municipal PGOU, the city’s sports clubs now have carte blanche to multiply the uses of their facilities, complementing the sporting function with parallel activities every year. year. A freedom that translates into “a problem” in the eyes of the residents of the surrounding neighborhoods, understanding that it “seriously threatens” their quality of life, security and coexistence.
Antonio Fajardo, spokesman for the affected residents of the Heliópolis area, denounces it at the gates of the Seville City Hall, after being expelled from the plenary hall for expressing his rejection of the recently approved amendment. Accompanied by other neighbors and members of Ecologists in Action who also came this Thursday to protest at the plenary session with banners, Fajardo criticizes the fact that the local PP government defends it as a “project of urban improvement and public interest”, when it goes “against the interests” of the citizens.
“We don’t want a Bernabéu in the south of the city,” says the neighborhood spokesman, claiming that the construction of almost 32,000 square meters planned for the Betis stadium for tertiary purposes “will further aggravate the situation of an already saturated neighborhood.” This is the scenario predicted by nine neighborhood associations in the Bellavista-la Palmera neighborhood, based on the impact that the new Real Madrid stadium has had on residents’ rest, since the start of the macro-concerts last April.
With the back to the wishes of the neighbors
The feeling shared by these Sevillians is that political decisions are made by turning their backs on the “neighbors’ wishes” and “ignoring citizen participation.” Online, they recall that the Bellavista-La Palmera district council approved a motion on September 10th asking “to paralyze the project so that it adapts to the neighborhood’s demands and international security criteria.”
Then, they expressed the reasons why they oppose the expansion projects that the two sports clubs in the city are already preparing, stressing that “the planned tertiary uses, still very poorly defined by the developers, will affect mobility and air quality”, while its announced use (365 days a year, 24 hours a day) “will lead to noise and light pollution and a significant loss of living conditions, not only affecting the closest neighborhoods”, according to the neighborhood representatives.
However, this motion supported by the nine neighborhood associations of the neighborhood did not prevent the plenary municipal council from giving the green light this Thursday to the modification of PGOU number 63, which authorizes the multiplication of uses in what are considered “unique sports facilities” those with a capacity of more than 7,000 seated spectators.
A change that the municipal delegate for urban planning, Juan de la Rosa, described in plenary session as “very important for the city”, defending that it will contribute to the “development, renewal and promotion” of two emblematic institutions “from a sporting, economic and social point of view”, such as Real Betis and Sevilla FC, as he added in his speech. Once the change in regulations is effective, both sports entities will have to present their projects to obtain the corresponding visa from Urban Planning. In any case, this first step means following the same (and controversial) path that Real Madrid opened with the Santiago Bernabéu, with “360 degree” facilities that complement the sporting function every year with shopping malls, catering areas and parallel activities. of the year.
“A great ball for Betis and Seville”
The only voice that echoed the slogans of the neighborhoods during the plenary session was that of the spokesperson for the Con Podemos-IU group, Susana Hornillo, who voted against the change in the urban planning regulations, considering that this means “putting the PGOU at the service of the private interests of the Sevillian clubs without taking into account the impact that this will have on the neighborhoods.”
In the debate that took place before the vote, Hornillo recalled that with this first step “they intend to bring to Seville the situation of the Bernabéu twice”, also giving up “public land in exchange for very advantageous compensation for football clubs where citizens are the losers”. The Podemos spokesperson refers to the fact that the planned expansions require the use of municipal land, for which they have already obtained initial approval from the City Council.
In the case of the green and white team, it is an 8,000 square meter plot of land classified as private sports use, which the club wants to compensate for with public facilities and an open space within its own project. The residents of Nervión, for their part, have requested to use a 10,000 meter plot of land considered a green space, which they want to exchange for a plot of the same size but in their sports city, on the outskirts of the capital.
“Ridiculous compensation”
“They are going to expand their land thanks to the granting of public land in exchange for ridiculous compensation,” reproached Susana Hornillo, before asking the rest of the political parties if they are “prepared to condemn the neighbours who live around the stadiums of Betis and Sevilla to live the same ordeal as those of the Bernabéu.
From Vox, councilor Gonzalo García de Polavieja downplayed the warnings of Podemos Sevilla, stressing that, although he is “aware that there are concerns”, “it is interesting to approve this modification to advance the treatment” with a view to “our big clubs putting themselves on an equal footing with the big European clubs by improving their facilities.”
After the vote, Hornillo justified his “no” by declaring himself “against urban planning and the increase in income of football clubs to the detriment of the rights of residents.” The socialist group downplayed the importance of the modification, explaining that “today nothing is approved here, only the contributory uses.” “It has nothing to do with what will finally materialize in the project,” said socialist councilor Francisco Javier Páez.
After these words, the residents present in the plenary hall unfurled their banners with messages opposing the change. Now, outside the City Hall, they conclude that what is coming is “a great success for Betis and Seville”, but “a bad deal for the city and the residents”.
