Madrid is about to add another great new neighborhood thanks to the development of the Nueva Centralidad del Este (NCE), in the San Blas-Canillejas district, next to the Metropolitano stadium. This ambitious urban development project, which aims to build in the last great green space in the east of the capital, contemplates the creation of 18,000 sustainable housing units to be distributed in four large neighborhoods of proximity, designed under the 15-minute city model. Approximately half of the apartments will be public housing.
The NCE will occupy more than 5.5 million square meters between the M-40, the Atlético de Madrid stadium and the Ambroz lagoons. One of its axes will be a large technological campus with 800,000 square meters of surface area and 400,000 square meters of buildable area.
New neighborhood in Madrid with “new green areas”.
The project’s construction company and the City Council itself place special emphasis on the fact that more than a third of the space (two million square meters) will be devoted to green areas, forest trails and water bodies, but little mention is made of the already rich biodiversity around the area’s natural lagoons.
It is also emphasized that the homes are designed with energy efficiency criteria in mind, and will be organized in high-density blocks to promote neighborhood living and minimize commuting, integrating smart technologies and circular economy solutions (solar panels, sustainable materials, recycling systems and waste reduction).
Concern for the Ambroz Lagoons
However, the development of the Nueva Centralidad del Este has sparked strong concern among environmental and neighborhood associations about the future of the Ambroz lagoons, one of Madrid’s most unique urban wetlands. Organizations such as Ecologists in Action and the Working Group for the Study and Conservation of the Ambroz Lagoons consider the urban development project incompatible with the protection of this enclave, which is home to endangered species of flora and fauna and has become naturalized in the last two decades after the cessation of mining activity.
The organizations denounce that, although the project plans to conserve the lagoons in the southern area of the new neighborhood, the urbanization of the surrounding area -with roads and housing blocks-would endanger their ecological connectivity, degrade the habitat and limit their value as a refuge for biodiversity.
They also criticize the non-compliance with previous municipal agreements on the need for protection and community management of the area, and warn that the concept of “renaturalization” defended by the administration is, in practice, a simple green varnish on a megaproject that would seal irreplaceable natural soils. According to these associations, the best option would be to declare the area a protected zone, integrate it into the Metropolitan Forest and turn it into a large biodiversity reserve and green corridor for the entire southeast of Madrid.
