Benasque approves only the diversification of uses of the Anciles special plan

The Plenary of the Benasque City Council has definitively approved, and only partially, Isolated Modification No. 1 of the Special Protection and Interior Reform Plan (PEPRI) of Anciles, limited to the diversification of uses in the urban center. The agreement was adopted in the session of September 30, 2026, and is published in the Official Gazette of the Province of Huesca No. 204, of October 23, 2026 (official reference BOPH-2026-204005), within the Local Administration, City Councils section.

A file processed over fifteen months

The modification was initiated under File 1496880A, with the initial title “increase in density and diversification of uses in the urban center,” and its technical document was drafted by the municipal advisory architect Sixto Marín Gavín in May 2025. The processing includes the following milestones:

• Mayoral Resolution No. 429, of July 8, 2025: initial approval and referral to the Provincial Cultural Heritage Commission.
• Public information announced in the Official Gazette of the Province of Huesca No. 129, of July 11, 2025, and exhibition on the electronic notice board from July 11 to August 12, 2025, with no allegations presented.
• Provincial Cultural Heritage Commission of Huesca, session of September 30, 2025 (File 25/223): favorable report.
• Provincial Urban Planning Council of Huesca, session of May 27, 2026 (File 2026/34): suspension of the report due to technical deficiencies.
• Mayoral Resolution No. 576, of August 7, 2026: continuation of the processing only regarding the diversification of uses.
• Provincial Urban Planning Council, session of September 23, 2026: favorable report.

Water supply excludes the 58 dwellings

The first pronouncement of the Provincial Urban Planning Council was negative: it criticized that the sufficiency of urban services and the capacity of the road network had not been analyzed, and demanded the incorporation of a parking analysis into the detailed study, given the limited road capacity of the nucleus. Reports from the municipal water supply advisor, Antonio Sarasa, confirmed the water problem:

• An increase in consumption from 5 to 10 m³/day due to changes in use is manageable within the 500 m³/day available, approximately 1.5% of the total.
• The 58 dwellings planned for the old town would represent an additional 58 m³/day, which is not manageable: the pipeline from the Fontanilla ravine allows a maximum of 518 m³/day compared to an estimated contribution of 777 m³/day.
• The WTP (Water Treatment Plant) can purify 960 m³/day and the tank stores 725 m³, water for barely 1.15 days.

Given this scenario, the City Council approved only the part regarding uses and excluded the increase in density.

What the approved regulation allows

The published text modifies two articles of the PEPRI. Article 21 (change of use) requires an application to the City Council justifying the impact of the new use on the urban planning and the effects it generates, with prior technical reports to grant or deny the license. Article 33 (regulation of uses) mandates the drafting of a Detailed Study justifying the suitability of the intervention, its scope, and its impact on existing buildings, the road network, and parking spaces. All actions must respect the existing volumetry and the character of the constructions and the urban space.

The final approval corresponded to the Plenary in accordance with Article 57.5 of the Recast Text of the Urban Planning Law of Aragon, approved by Legislative Decree 1/2014, of July 8. The agreement will be sent to the Provincial Urban Planning Council, published in the provincial section of the Official Gazette of Aragon, and registered in the Registry Book of Planning and Management Instruments. An administrative appeal may be filed against it before the Administrative Litigation Chamber of the High Court of Justice of Aragon within two months from the day following publication, according to Article 46 of Law 29/1998. The announcement is signed by the mayor-president, Manuel Mora Bernat, in Benasque, on October 22, 2026.

The result is a more modest regulatory change than projected: owners and developers in Anciles may diversify activities in existing buildings through a detailed study, but they may not divide properties into more dwellings until the capacity of the supply network is resolved. The decision conditions the future of the historic center and shifts the real limit of the nucleus’s growth to the heritage and municipal infrastructures.

Source: Official Gazette of the Province of Huesca, no. 204, October 23, 2026, Local Administration, pp. 11-14 (official reference: BOPH-2026-204005).