La Palma

La Palma del Condado Municipality

Andrés Dochao, euprj@lapalmadelcondado.org and Rosa García rgarcia@lapalmadelcondado.org

URBAN PROJECT FOR A LOW CARBON ECONOMY: INTEGRATED PROJECT FOR INTERVENTION ON THE AXES OF MOBILITY, PLANNING AND ENERGY EFFICIENCY

·      Integrated energy

·      Transport mobility

·      Land use planning

·      Innovative financing solutions

The managing organization is La Palma del Condado Municipality. Website: www.lapalmadelcondado.org

The geographic coverage is the urban area of the municipality and parts of the rest of its territory due the implementation and use of bicycle circuit around the village. This municipality is located in Huelva province, in the Andalucía Region in Spain

Map in google maps: https://www.google.gr/maps/place/21700+La+Palma+del+Condado,+Huelva,+Espa%C3%B1a/data=!4m2!3m1!1s0xd11f23c3f9128a5:0xa4b6ac1472038874?sa=X&sqi=2&ved=0ahUKEwjv3rb5lIbTAhUCUhQKHflnBbgQ8gEIfTAL

Location: 37º 23′ N, 6º 33′ W

Urban mobility as well as the friendly city plan have started in 2016 and it is expected before year 2020. BUT, local government has stablished this policy as something alive and pending of social changes and requirements of its population. It is the reason why, taken into account the nature of dynamic evolution of the city and in general terms, the completion of a friendly city cannot be understood as something with a specific end

Mainly senior people and people with disabilities, as well as specific groups as citizens with particular needs (for example parents moving baby carts or group of children in school and leisure areas)

The starting point was the debate, awareness and consensus in local parliament to assume and subscribe  the charter of Friendly Cities proposed by World Health Organisation (WHO). Under this agreement the Village of La Palma del Condado confirmed its commitment to entry into Global Network of Age-friendly Cities and Communities promoted by the WHO.

This commitment obliges to Village of La Palma del Condado local government to work in a range of eight strands to ensure heathy factors converge: 1) healthy outdoor spaces and buildings, 2) transportation, 3) housing, 4) social participation, respect and social inclusion, 5) civic participation and employment, 6) communication and information, 7) community support and 8) health services. All this factors affects the whole population and more especially those most vulnerable: seniors, disabled and children.

As part of this commitment, Village of La Palma del Condado has designed and now is under development, a special plan for mobility which include actions in following  urban areas:

• Traffic (changes in materials, eliminate obstacles for pedestrians, limit of velocity, organization of transport public and private in accordance with sustainable citizens mobility,…),
• Parkings (by establishing  blue zones, public parkings in parts of the city to alleviate the pressure of cars over the citizens mobility,)
• Engagement of additional public / private transport services to solve gaps of mobility by citizens to special areas around the village for different purposes (access to services, leisure, malls, healthcare center)
• Measures to recover quality of urban environment as, for example, better paths for pedestrians, bicycle routes, rent of bicycles and safety parking for its users.
• Management of mobility  through new measures as shared cars among citizens for travels to centers of special interest as for example , access to hospitals.
• Mobility improvement for people with reduced capability to move by themselves in the city, with new design of access and movement along streets, changes over bus stops,
• Improvement of movement of goods with special control over vehicles and trucks
• Integration of mobility in local urban policies , with special focus in support to pedestrians and a design of the current and future village as a friendly city
• Improvement of environmental quality and efficiency in energy, with expected integration of electric vehicles  in public services (police, transport of waste, maintenance of parks, …)
• Security plan applied to mobility  with improvements over signals to citizens, drivers and pedestrians

The finance is assumed by three different sources: by national and regional governments throughout special plan to improve regularly roads around and crossing the village as well as signals, regional support for contracting local unemployed to act over special needs in urban streets and the local government funding also to act over streets, repair signals, etc.

The implementation is being made by a local structure of coordinated working groups by local government. The core of the mobility plan execution is formed by team of architects and urban planners in the staff of the public local body. This team  coordinates the work with other public servants in the staff of the local public body and in charge of security (local police), maintenance services and private companies as suppliers of specific materials or/and specific technical services (for example control of efficiency in local energy infrastructure).

The methodology is based in continuous check in over accomplished tasks of each on going action and its review internally daily, weekly and monthly with responsible of local government as well as with local social agents. Local Development Agency is also involved monthly in consultations with local agents throughout workshops.

The internal organisation for the implementation plan execution is on behalf of the team of architects and urban planners within the staff of the public local body.

Weak features and criticalities of the tool/measure:

Municipality of La Palma del Condado has a website to supply neighbors about Project work process   and additional docs. The url address is as follows:

http://adlpalmadelcondado.blogspot.com.es/p/proyecto-urbano-de-economia-baja-en.html