:quality(85)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/infobae/DQFLEQSC6NBCFECHJNZW7J3L2A.jpeg%20420w "Judicial Ruling Suspends Controversial Urbanization Project in Montegancedo, Protecting Valuable Ecosystem")
The Administrative Court number 9 has admitted a precautionary suspension of the urbanization project in the Montegancedo forest, approved on April 17, 2024, by the Local Government Board of Pozuelo de Alarcón, as reported by Ecologists in Action.
The Court, based on expert reports provided by this organization and the arguments put forth by their lawyers, has concluded that “we are dealing with an area of great botanical and ecological value, as well as the ideal habitat for a series of protected raptor species.”
Therefore, they added that “it seems evident that if the execution of the urbanization project were not suspended, the appeal would lose its purpose, since by the time a ruling is issued, if it is favorable to the appellant, the entire area would have disappeared and lost its botanical and ecological value, along with the disappearance of the raptor birds, without being possible to revert the situation to its previous state in any way.”
Jaime Doreste, lawyer for the environmental organization, expressed his satisfaction with the ruling and stated that “the halt to the ongoing works and the cuttings in Montegancedo was essential to safeguard its environmental, botanical, and faunal values, because otherwise, there was an evident risk that once the forest areas had been cut down and the mountain urbanized, the ‘law of established facts’ would be ratified and an irreversible situation would be consolidated, causing environmental, territorial, and landscape damage that would be difficult to restore.” “We cannot afford to have a shameful case like El Algarrobico or the Marina de Valdecañas in the Community of Madrid,” he added.
Laura Díaz, a lawyer who also represents Ecologists in Action in the same proceedings, emphasized that “this ruling represents an acknowledgment of the importance of protecting our natural resources and the environmental values of Montegancedo” and highlighted the importance of the court order recognizing that “while there is a public interest in the development of urban planning, it must respond to the requirements of sustainable development, and the liberalization of land cannot be based on indiscriminate classification.”
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Ecologists in Action of the Community of Madrid values the judicial suspension of the urbanization project “very positively” and acknowledges that it would not have been possible without the collaboration of the neighbors of Pozuelo de Alarcón, grouped in the Save Montegancedo Platform. The organization has already forwarded the ruling to the City Council of Pozuelo de Alarcón and requested it to comply with it immediately.
According to Ecologists in Action, Montegancedo or Dehesa de Montegancedo is one of the few enclaves that have not yet been urbanized in Pozuelo de Alarcón. It is located in the southwest of the municipality, between the M-40 and the La Cabaña and Montepríncipe urbanizations, in Boadilla del Monte. It is a forest of holm oaks, cork oaks, kermes oaks, gall oaks, and stone pines, where the continuous presence of raptors (black kite, red kite, imperial eagle, black vulture, sparrowhawk, etc.) stands out, all of which are protected species by state and regional legislation. It is an enclave of great environmental and ecological importance due to its function as a refuge island for fauna and flora, being a free space surrounded by houses and infrastructure.
In addition to its natural values, Montegancedo also contains the remains of the Retamares ammunition depots, military constructions that for decades constituted one of the main reserves of ammunition and explosives in the Central region. The takeover of the Retamares depot was one of the bloodiest episodes in the early months of the Civil War.
