Urban planning regulations prevent the penthouse that the Community of Madrid has purchased in Chamberí from being used entirely as an office, according to the capital’s urban plan and consulted experts. Only the option of a home professional office is authorized, which consists of combining residential use with a maximum of one third of the property dedicated to work. This leaves the Community’s plans for this luxury apartment purchased in April, whose acquisition EL PAÍS revealed this Wednesday, up in the air.
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Before publishing that information, a regional spokesperson had responded to this newspaper that Ayuso “and a minimal team” plan to use that property as an “office” during a renovation at the presidential headquarters in Sol. Once the news was released, the president’s team clarified saying that the decision “is not one hundred percent made.”
Ayuso has twice avoided the question about the possible irregularity of that office during Wednesday’s press conference in Sol. The Madrid City Council has also not responded to this newspaper’s request to clarify this matter. However, urban planning technicians say that Madrid’s regulations are clear. It is not allowed.
It is possible to use it as a residence, but the president has firmly stated that this will not be the purpose. The Community now finds itself having made a million-euro investment with uncertain utility.
The prohibition appears in the 1997 General Urban Development Plan of the city of Madrid, which defines where one can live or work. Article 8.1.30 contains the rules for buildings like the one housing the penthouse purchased by the regional government: it is forbidden to establish an office or a public service use on the penthouse floor. Such uses would only be possible on the ground floor, lower than ground floor (semi-basement), and first floor.
The penthouse is located on the ninth floor of a residential block on one of the most emblematic streets of Chamberí, Paseo del General Martínez Campos. It measures 485 square meters, of which 199 are terrace, according to the simple note in the Property Registry. A neighbor of the building told this newspaper that none of the 16 apartments in the block are used as offices. He added that he did not have the community statutes at hand but assured that offices are prohibited throughout the block, reports Lucía Franco.
The statutes are the internal rules that can tighten what the municipal ordinances say. For example, the neighbors of this block, where some aristocratic families live, have banned tourist apartments.
The purchase was made by a public company dedicated to land and office management, Planifica Madrid. It was formalized before a notary on April 14, for an amount not revealed by the Madrid government. The market value of a similar property in that area could be around six million euros.
Ayuso’s government had kept silent about the purchase until she was asked this Tuesday by EL PAÍS, before the news was published. To justify the delay, the president’s team explained that they intended to reveal it after the start in August of some works at the Sol headquarters, a renovation that was previously unknown. In her press conference, Ayuso said that this luxurious penthouse will be used to hold “temporary meetings.”
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Avoiding chaos
The philosophy of urban planning is to establish rules to avoid chaos and organize the provision of public services such as garbage collection. An urban planning technician who asked to remain anonymous highlights that one of the battlegrounds of José Luis Martínez-Almeida’s City Council is precisely to prevent the “tertiarization of the city,” that is, to avoid offices in residential buildings.
Architect Isabel León, who was for 12 years the general secretary of the Higher Council of Architects’ Associations, tells this newspaper that the rule is clear: “It is not feasible to set up an office in a penthouse of a residential building that is not mixed tertiary.” She adds that in practice there are professional offices operating on floors for which they would not be authorized urbanistically, although often the situation remains without inspection or neighborhood complaint. In any case, she says she has never seen an office in a penthouse.
Having said all this, the Community would have a way to overcome this obstacle. It would involve preserving residential use and dedicating only part of the property to a home professional office, a category contemplated in the regulations. This is the case for certain professionals, such as lawyers or architects, who attend to their clients in their own home. In these cases, there are also conditions: the professional office part and the residential part must be spatially differentiated, and the office can only occupy a maximum of one third of the apartment.
In any case, Ayuso ruled out this Wednesday before the press that she will live in the penthouse, dismissing a legitimate doubt because she herself had previously opened the debate about whether the presidents of the Community of Madrid should have an official residence, as happens in other regions. “I tell you, I will not have an official residence like so many ministers or so many presidents of other autonomous communities.”
The Community seems to have postponed the decision about the penthouse until autumn. Her team has said that first they will carry out a renovation that they expect to finish in October or November. So, at the earliest, we would have the answer in two months.
Before the press and with the councilors listening in the front row, Ayuso left open the possibility of moving her office to another ministry: “Get ready, councilor, because I don’t know if I will stay in the Ministry of Presidency or Transport, which is very large, and it is the councilor who will go there (to the penthouse), I don’t know.”
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