Planned communities in Balisca
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Cantonal, regional and confederal administrations of Balisca began developing planned communities (Baliscano: comunidads plañatas) in the late 1970s in response to the emerging Baliscan housing shortage. Permits for the development, urban planning, and oversight are issued by the confederal-level New Urban Communities Authority. Land use is carefully planned in new towns, and development sets aside plenty of room for public housing projects. There are significant discrepancies between cities and districts, particularly between those built in the older and newer generations.
Planned communities are designed to be pedestrian and cyclist-oriented, with a large residential population living in the centre with mixed-use developments, typically with a medium-height, commercial base and narrow, high-rise residential towers, significant reliance on mass public transit, creation and maintenance of greenways and park spaces, and preserving view corridors. Additionally, the communities are intended to be self-reliant so that such that residents would not need to travel between the new towns and the city centre for work and leisure.
As most flat lands on the Atlantic seaboard of Balisca had already been developed, the government proposed to build new towns in the Bayaran plains, which was overwhelming rural area at that time. The first phase of new-town development, which began in 1980, included Baccara, Masalavés and Vilaxoyosa. With the success of these new towns, and the experience gained from building them, the government launched further stages of new-town development in subsequent decades. However, this proliferation of satellite cities has also provoked opposition from radical ecologists, who have called for resources to be directed towards densification and verticalization rather than outward expansion. This opposition successfully led to the cancellation of the Garrigàs Seawall, which would have resulted in the reclamation of 1,500 km2 (580 sq mi) from the Garrigàs Gulf for the planned city of Algesires.
To date, 33 planned communities have been built across Balisca, and about 8 million people live in these newly developed areas.