**3.2 Tres cantos**

During the 50's and 60's in Spain it was a lot of migration between countryside and cities and jointly with the natural increase of population there was a need of new houses mostly in the principal cities, one of them was Madrid. Metropolitan area of Madrid was growing a lot and in a disorganized way. One of the problems was the legal difficulty of new urban land creation. In 1970, the "Decreto-Ley 7/1970" of June 27th about Urgent Urban Actions (ACTUR17) tried to solve those problems. ACTUR has three objectives:


With this Law ("Decreto-Ley") starts New town's creation in Spain. They want to build selfsufficient towns as it was in England and France. In that case, the National Institute of Housing selected the zone, expropriated the land and fund New town construction. This project was so ambitious and disconnected from Spanish reality that central Administration was not able to face up its costs. Under this Law it was expected to build eight New Towns (table 3):


Source: Fernando de Terán.

Table 4. Areas defined as ACTUR

The only one that has become a real New town is Tres Cantos. The others seven or have not been developed or have become suburbs as Puente de Santiago in Zaragoza or has restructured as Cartuja in Sevilla that become the area of the Universal Exposition in 1992.

<sup>17</sup> Actuaciones Urbanísticas Urgentes (ACTUR).

Services funded by assessment dollars include also emergency medical service, additional sheriff's deputies, residential design review and covenant enforcement, The Woodlands Watch Programs, streetscape maintenance, streetlights, residential trash removal and recycling, recreational programs, and environmental and recycling education. Communitywide facilities provided and maintained by the associations' assessment funds are: parks, swimming pools, athletic fields and courts, pathways, Lake Woodlands, a recreation center

During the 50's and 60's in Spain it was a lot of migration between countryside and cities and jointly with the natural increase of population there was a need of new houses mostly in the principal cities, one of them was Madrid. Metropolitan area of Madrid was growing a lot and in a disorganized way. One of the problems was the legal difficulty of new urban land creation. In 1970, the "Decreto-Ley 7/1970" of June 27th about Urgent Urban Actions

With this Law ("Decreto-Ley") starts New town's creation in Spain. They want to build selfsufficient towns as it was in England and France. In that case, the National Institute of Housing selected the zone, expropriated the land and fund New town construction. This project was so ambitious and disconnected from Spanish reality that central Administration was not able to face up its costs. Under this Law it was expected to build eight New Towns

**City name Region Area (Has.) Population**  Tres Cantos Madrid 1.690 144.000 Riera de Caldas Barcelona 1.472 132.000 Sabadell-Tarrassa Barcelona 1.675 148.000 Martorell Barcelona 1.861 165.000 Vilanova Valencia 1.330 - La Cartuja Sevilla 887 78.000 Puente de Santiago Zaragoza 665 94.500 Rio de San Pedro Cádiz 1.593 141.300

The only one that has become a real New town is Tres Cantos. The others seven or have not been developed or have become suburbs as Puente de Santiago in Zaragoza or has restructured as Cartuja in Sevilla that become the area of the Universal Exposition in 1992.

(ACTUR17) tried to solve those problems. ACTUR has three objectives:

3. Create land reserve for community equipments and activities.

1. Supply housing demand in big cities specially Madrid and Barcelona. 2. Introduce modifications to the Land Law to speed up land expropriations.

and recreational vehicle storage.

**3.2 Tres cantos** 

(table 3):

Source: Fernando de Terán.

Table 4. Areas defined as ACTUR

17 Actuaciones Urbanísticas Urgentes (ACTUR).

Tres Cantos is located in the Autonomous Community of Madrid, 22 km north of the capital city Madrid and was born as a New Town from a political decision. It is not a traditional city because it was not developed from geographic, historic or any other way that normally develops a Spanish city. It was a political-administrative decision that developed this city. It is not a dormitory town because actually residents work and live in the city and receive workers from villages that are close to it. As we have said Tres Cantos was born under the law called "Decreto-Ley" of June 27th of 1970 that regulated what it was called as Urgent Urbanity Action. They initiated the project in 1971, it was supposed to be constructed 36000 homes with an industrial area and all the services that a city will need. They decide to establish Tres Cantos on rural land ceded by the city of Colmenar Viejo. Residential occupation began from 1982 and in 1991; it was incorporated as a separate municipality, the newest in all Spain.

They choose this location because it was close to Madrid (map 3) and the land was flat and inexpensive. They created a public firm (with central administration funds) that following the English and French experience build and manage the city.

In 1971 Housing Department, pass the demarcation of the urban actuation Area of Tres Cantos. It has an area of 1.691 Has. that belong to two municipalities Colmenar Viejo (1.381 Has.) and Madrid (310 Has.). It has an exceptional situation as we have said is too closed to Madrid and it has a natural environment (map 4).

In order to manage ACTUR they created in 1976 a public firm called "Tres Cantos S.A (TCSA)". It has the financial participation of National Institute of Development (INUR18) (57,6 per cent), Regional Council of Madrid (22,4 per cent) and Saving Bank of Madrid (20 per cent). In 1991 the funding becomes public and funding belongs to Housing Institute of Madrid (84,4 per cent) and to Autonomous community of Madrid (15,6 per cent). TCSA is a unique experience in Spain because combine public functions as it is was a Town Hall and private selling land or building social equipment.

When they start to build houses as it not was private initiative, central administration decide to build houses through cooperatives and between 1978 and 1985, they built 4.842 houses. In 1982, Tres Cantos has 50 inhabitants.

In 1986 began the second period of house building, at this period there is a mix of construction between cooperatives (1.964 houses) and private firms (2.984 houses). In ten years, Tres Cantos increased its population to 22.000 inhabitants and actually (2011) it has 41.343 inhabitants.

During the first period neighbours create associations to solve different problems that appear or to demand services that they start to need as transportation, schools or health centres. However, the biggest problem during this initial period was the administrative dependence of Colmenar Viejo Town Hall. Since 1987, neighbours had political representations at Colmenar Viejo administration. Those representatives had obtained the approval of Tres Cantos segregation of Colmenar Viejo. In March of 1991, Tres Cantos become an independent municipality. It is the number 179 municipality of the Autonomous Community of Madrid. Two months later, they celebrated the first local elections and it won one political party created by neighbours called Tres Cantos United ("Tres Cantos Unido", TCU). Since now there have been other political parties running the Town Hall.

<sup>18</sup> Instituto Nacional de Urbanización.

Two Ways of New Towns Development: A Tale of Two Cities 237

As we have said one of the main differences between European and US model is the funding. We know that New town development is expensive, particularly the provision of their infrastructures. In Europe, central or local government provides those infrastructures and in US is the private developer who provides them. For that reason in US some of the New towns failed or remain heavily in debt and in Europe only failed the ones that

The Woodlands case study can help us understand how a private government can provide public goods and recognize that certain groups or individuals can be involved in the governance of a city. Such an involvement community is a unique form of governance, and The Woodlands is the only community in United States governed by private associations. In particular, the processes of partnership creation and empowerment have reinforced the idea that a community can diminish the power of a developer in the development of a new town

The Woodlands also holds lessons for governments and private developers as they seek to create sustainable environments and community involvement governance. This style of governance, in the end, reflects the characters and personalities of the family members living in the community. Also, there is no existence of political parties that can have

The case of The Woodlands provides a caution against the new towns where the developer dominates decision-making. By encouraging a system of involvement, the developer of The Woodlands has made it possible for residents to determine their own future. Already experienced in running most of the affairs of the project, citizens are well positioned to choose the best way to preserve and develop their community. As I have said it has been the most successful new town of its generation and it has been transformed into an incipient city with enough economic development to participate in and influence regional planning and policy. It remains to be seen whether New Towns are a good planning or policy

Tres Cantos has followed English and French planning model. In that case the developer was a public firm called "Tres Cantos S.A" and the funding it was also from public administrations. It is a good example for housing cooperatives because in the first period of building the city houses were built by a cooperative. This way of constructions through cooperatives appears during periods of economic crisis. In the first period of developing

Tres Cantos is located in a sustainable environment with a good transportation network and it is so close to a big city as Madrid. In addition, it has a young demographic structure. This makes that its economic activity is characterize by a high participation of woman in the labour market. It has also high-qualified worker and government employees. Its unemployment rate

As the in case of The Woodlands, Tres Cantos neighbour's associations have a lot of influence in the development and segregation of the New town from the city close to it. Nevertheless, in Tres Cantos, the government of the town is elected in public elections and it has the same composition as the rest of municipalities in Spain. However, in The Woodlands

is low due to its high occupation rate and because it has many young people studying.

they have a private government composed by a board of directors.

in ways that have implications for the community's future governance and growth.

administration do not have money due to economic crisis.

electoral or party motivations.

instrument for the future.

Tres Cantos it was an economic crisis in Spain.

Source: Self elaborated from National Institute of Statistic

Fig. 5. Percentage of different sectors in GDP.

The Gross Domestic Product per capita is 68.840€ and as we can see in figure 4 most comes from service sector. It comes to the city 30.000 workers from others municipalities close to Tres Cantos to work in. This economic development is due to its localization. It is really close to Madrid and highways. It also has train transportation and a good accessibility to Barajas airport in Madrid.

We can say that Tres Cantos is has become a good example of New Town as Howard definition because it is a self-sufficient city with a sustainable environment, industry, commerce and houses.
