Neighbors on alert for the possible increase in ghost kitchens: "We know what will happen"
The plenary session of the Madrid City Council approved on Monday the new urban regulations for the city. The text went ahead thanks to the absolute majority of the PP, while Vox abstained and the PSOE and Más Madrid voted against. Before it enters into force, it must be approved by the Community of Madrid in the Governing Council within a maximum period of four months.. And although the text dedicates a section to the controversial ghost kitchens, the current moratorium that restricts their proliferation will end in August. In other words, from the end of said period until the new regulations come into force, there will be a possible vacuum that terrifies the residents.
“We know what is going to happen,” says Esther Lomas, spokesperson for the Platform for People Affected by Ghost Kitchens in Madrid. A few months ago they met with the City Council activities agency. They had a multitude of applications for licenses frozen by a restrictive moratorium that was approved by the boom of these dark kitchens. “Now, companies just have to get a responsible declaration and after August 16 [when the moratorium ends] they will open their doors,” he says.. This neighbor began an open war against kitchens as a result of the increase in these places in her neighborhood, Imperial. The residents filed a joint complaint, but are still awaiting trial.
In 2020, these stores began to multiply. It was then that the residents organized themselves, created an association and took to the streets. They did not want this type of business near their homes for various reasons. Smells, noise, traffic and movement of riders. There was no regulatory framework for this type of business. On Zabaleta street alone, in the Prosperidad neighborhood, there are 38 of these kitchens. The moratorium that was put in place to alleviate its proliferation will end on August 16, 2023.
From the Urban Planning area of the City Council they assure that the consistory has three months to approve or reject an activity license, so they do not consider that this could be an inconvenience. It is, in the words of delegate Borja Carabante, a “necessary, essential and urgent” reform. What the residents fear is that they will give the go-ahead to all those that are already pending in the weeks in which the Community of Madrid takes time to approve the new urban plan.
This new text is a “transitory regulation that will allow us to work on a new General Plan to cement future urban planning,” said Carabante.. And it specifies that ghost kitchens should be prioritized in industrial areas and with a maximum of eight premises every 350 square meters.. In addition, they must have waiting and loading and unloading areas to avoid inconvenience.
Is this enough? For affected residents, no. Santiago Calle, also a spokesperson for the Platform, explains that none of his proposals have been accepted.. “We asked that the large kitchens be in industrial estates, that there could only be four for every 350 meters and that they be half a kilometer from schools, health centers and sports centers,” he says.. None of this has gone ahead. Calle argues that the ideal would be for licenses not to be approved until the Community of Madrid approves the new text.
The left insists that these rules only benefit “them”, and Rita Maestre's team will even take the text to court for alleged failures in its processing. However, the mayor declared shortly after that said complaint did not concern him because all the procedures have been carried out correctly. The plan was not approved in the previous legislature due to the rejection of Vox. This time, they justified their abstention by arguing that they did so out of “responsibility”, since the regulations incorporate “the religion of the 2030 Agenda”.