Alcobendas could have a new neighborhood that will expand the city to its border with Madrid, and its name, Valgrande, according to its creators, captures the essence of this urban development that “emerges as a tribute to the surroundings where it will be built”: “Val-” refers to Monte de Valdelatas and the Valdelacasa stream, while “-grande” is a nod both to the Vallegrande stream and to the scale of the project itself for the Madrid municipality.
In that sense, one of the key aspects of Valgrande’s urban development is the construction of 8,600 homes as a “solution to the high demand from various groups, such as young people, the elderly, and broad segments of the middle class,” explains the Valgrande Compensation Board in the project dossier.
Of these future homes, 55% (that is, a total of 4,730) will be public housing, with the aim of expanding the supply of new affordable housing in northern Madrid, and the remainder (3,870 homes) will be allocated to the private market. According to estimates, more than 25,000 residents will live in this new neighborhood.
New green spaces and amenities in Valgrande
In addition to the homes, the natural environment is highlighted as another of the fundamental pillars of the new Alcobendas neighborhood, creating 579,778 m² of new green spaces—which constitute 27% of the project’s total area.
A large central park will also be created with “an extensive network of walking paths through the trees, playgrounds, and leisure and recreational areas,” which will include a wide network of pedestrian paths and bike lanes.
The total estimated investment for the project is 2.3 billion euros, and it is estimated that 4,000 jobs will be created during its development.
A project opposed by residents and environmentalists
At the end of last year, following the final approval of the Valgrande Sector (Los Carriles) Partial Plan by the Alcobendas City Council, Ecologistas en Acción denounced that this plan “will mean the destruction of the city’s last green lung.”
In a publication describing it as “a real estate windfall in the midst of a climate crisis,” he noted that the new plan is practically identical to the one the Supreme Court struck down in June 2025.
Among other consequences, they point out that developing Los Carriles will involve cutting down tens of thousands of trees, paving over more than half a million square meters, and “transforming the Valdelacasa Stream Valley into a landscaped park crisscrossed by roads, sewage collectors, pipes, and power lines, completely denaturing this ecosystem.”
Regarding the construction of housing, they consider this to be a misleading argument since “most of the new homes will be luxury units or unaffordable for the population, ”making them harder to access.
Neighborhood opposition, for its part, has organized around the Citizens’ Platform “Save Los Carriles de Alcobendas,” through which they assert that “The future lies in protecting the biodiversity of this area. We are protecting the last remaining corner of nature in the city, which they want to raze to build 8,600 homes.”
A project with a legal appeal pending
The mobilization of residents and environmentalists bore fruit at the end of April, when the courts accepted for consideration an administrative appeal against the project filed just over two months ago.
In that regard, they criticize the Alcobendas City Council for moving forward with the development despite an ongoing legal proceeding: “A project that is under appeal and pending a court ruling is being sold as a done deal.”
Valgrande Construction Timeline
According to information published by El Economista, following the project’s final approval in November 2025, housing construction will begin in 2027, and the first residents could move into their homes starting in 2030.