Barcelona and Esplugues create a commission to coordinate the future Campus Clínic

Barcelona and Esplugues de Llobregat have created a joint commission to plan the area of Diagonal Avenue where the Campus Clínic will be built. The agreement envisions around 6,000 homes and 300,000 square metres of healthcare, educational, and research space.

The mayors of Barcelona, Jaume Collboni, and Esplugues de Llobregat, Eduard Sanz, signed the agreement on Wednesday that establishes a Joint Commission. Its mission is to organise urban planning at the boundary between the two municipalities, in the vicinity of Diagonal Avenue, where the future Campus Clínic will be located.

According to the Barcelona City Council, the pact is the third bilateral cooperation table that the city has initiated with neighbouring municipalities. Similar tables have previously been established with L'Hospitalet de Llobregat and Sant Adrià de Besòs. The aim is to coordinate strategic projects and ensure metropolitan continuity in planning.

The commission will need to plan for nearly 6,000 new homes, half of which will be publicly owned. It will also have to monitor the impact of the Campus Clínic, which will add 300,000 square metres of space for hospital, educational, and research uses.

The body will also oversee the Porta Diagonal operation and five other areas of transformation: Montesa, Finestrelles, Ecobarri dels Torrents, Porta Diagonal-Campus Clínic, and Colònia Castells. All of these aim to respond to the expected residential growth in the area.

One of the key aspects of the agreement is sustainable mobility. The two administrations plan to create an intermodal transport area that can accommodate the 65,000 daily trips that the new healthcare complex will generate. This will be in addition to the 25,000 trips already recorded in the vicinity of Hospital Sant Joan de Déu.

The commission will also regulate temporary accommodations linked to healthcare, educational, and university centres in the area. Furthermore, it will incorporate green infrastructures to address climate change and will support shared cultural initiatives, such as the Carme Chacón school in Esplugues de Llobregat and the Casa Hurtado in Barcelona.

For the local residents, the agreement outlines the roadmap for housing, transport, and facilities projects in the coming years. The commission will need to start working on the aforementioned projects, although the text does not set specific deadlines for each action.