canary islands 15 minute city plan launched

Canaries Launches Ambitious ’15-Minute Island’ Plan

Canaries Aims for Essential Services Within a Quarter of an Hour

Having life’s essentials within a fifteen-minute walk. The goal is clear and the plan is already in motion. The Government of the Canary Islands is working on the ‘Canarias de los 15 minutos’ (15-minute Canaries), a territorial model that aims to reorganise access to basic services to reduce inequalities between municipalities and stabilise the population in the most fragile areas. The idea is that any island resident should have essential services close at hand – within a fifteen-minute walk or public transport journey, or a ten-minute drive. The concept isn’t new. It draws from urban planning initiatives developed in various European cities and the Spanish national strategy of the so-called ’30-minute Spain’. The Canaries have decided to adapt it to their own reality, reducing the threshold to a quarter of an hour and expanding the types of services analysed.

“The aim is to foster a stronger connection to the local area, improve mobility, and reinforce social and territorial cohesion, thereby contributing to a better quality of life for the Canarian population,” explained the Deputy Minister of the Presidency of the Government of the Canary Islands, Octavio Caraballo, regarding the initiative included in the Canarian Strategy for Demographic Challenge and Territorial Cohesion.

Mapping the Service Gaps Across the Archipelago

The Canarian model includes basic services such as health centres, educational, sports, and cultural facilities. But it also encompasses what the government terms “everyday services”, which includes infrastructure necessary for daily life, like pharmacies, bank branches, and supermarkets. Currently, just over 39% of the Canarian population has access to all four basic services within a fifteen-minute walk. The figure improves when analysing everyday services, with around 54% of residents able to walk to a pharmacy, bank, or supermarket.

The distribution, however, is unequal. In the most densely populated areas, coverage of basic services slightly exceeds 42%, while in areas at risk of depopulation it barely surpasses 30%. Differences are also apparent in the analysis by island. The percentage of the population that can walk to essential services is around 41% in Gran Canaria and 40.5% in Tenerife, but falls to 31.1% in La Palma or 16.8% in La Gomera.

When the calculation is done by car, the picture changes radically. Over 95% of the population has access to basic services in under ten minutes, which reveals, according to the government, how mobility conditions daily life in the Islands.

Identifying “Dark Zones” and Functional Areas

The Canarian government has commissioned the public company Gesplan to conduct technical work to identify where the main deficiencies lie. A first step involves locating areas where the population lacks essential services – what Gesplan calls “dark zones”. The next step is to define so-called functional areas: spaces where it would be necessary to introduce new facilities or reorganise existing ones. The goal is for them to act as service hubs for nearby population centres.

“It may happen that a town is closer to the services of another municipality than to those of its own town hall,” explains the Deputy Director of Territorial Planning and Demographic Challenge at Gesplan, Eva Padrón. Therefore, functional areas are not defined by “administrative borders” but by where the real needs are. This issue forces consideration that the model must be linked to “shared governance formulas” and, probably, mechanisms for cooperation between administrations. “The only way to do it is by enshrining these functional areas in the future demographic challenge law for the Canaries,” clarifies Padrón.

Overcoming the Challenges of Mobility and Banking Deserts

Gesplan acknowledges that one of the project’s challenges is mobility. Roads and traffic have conditioned all the calculations. “When we looked at the 15-minute data by car, it seemed there were hardly any areas with problems, but that didn’t reflect reality. Queues, gradients, or the state of the roads completely change travel time,” explains the expert. Consequently, the study adjusted the calculation to ten minutes by car on the map to better approximate fifteen minutes of actual travel time.

Another major problem detected in this initial phase is the scarcity of bank branches, especially in rural areas. “In these functional areas, there has to be public-private management for it to truly work,” states Padrón. Regarding the project’s timeline, the goal in this first year is to complete the map of functional areas to have an advanced initial diagnosis before the demographic challenge congress scheduled for June in Breña Alta (La Palma). Funding is already being sought to launch a pilot project to test how this model would work on the ground. “We want to demonstrate that it is possible and that it genuinely improves people’s lives,” notes Padrón.

Expert Consensus on the Goal, But Warning of Hurdles

The idea of bringing services closer to citizens generates consensus among specialists, although they warn that applying it in the Archipelago will not be straightforward. The main obstacle, they agree, lies in the territory’s own configuration and the way many population centres have grown. For Emeritus Professor of Human Geography at the University of La Laguna (ULL), José León García, the model responds to a reasonable aspiration but clashes with decades of poorly planned urban growth.

“The idea is very good, but it’s not at all easy to implement,” he states. “Considering the urban development we’ve created, in many parts in a haphazard manner and without adequate planning, it’s not simple to now introduce those services into neighbourhoods.” The expert also notes that, for years, a process contrary to the proximity model has occurred, as small local shops have been disappearing.

Architect José María López believes the 15-minute model can only succeed if neighbourhoods have sufficient activity and permanent residents. “If there isn’t a minimum critical mass of population, a local business will never survive,” he warns. A mix of uses – housing, commerce, services – and a certain urban density are, in his opinion, key to making this model work. He also points to the impact tourism can have on this model. “A city sector with 30% empty housing has a problem,” he explains. “But if that 30% is filled with tourists, it also doesn’t generate the type of service demand a neighbourhood needs. A tourist passes through, buys a bottle of water, and leaves; they don’t go to the butcher or the fishmonger.”

A Call for a Shift in Mindset on Mobility and Public Space

There is also a social challenge. Architect and doctor from the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (ULPGC), Vicente Díaz, emphasises that the transformation of cities depends greatly on public acceptance. “Societies are not always prepared to assume important changes,” he explains. “There is a certain initial reluctance, although afterwards many of those transformations end up being highly valued.” Díaz insists that implementing a proximity model also requires a change in how mobility and the use of public space are understood. “We still have it ingrained that the car takes priority over the pedestrian,” he notes. “If we freed up space from traffic, we could have more trees, benches, community spaces, or activities in neighbourhoods.”

With difficulties or without them, the experts agree that having this model as a reference is a good starting point, and anything achieved along the way will be positive. “The goal doesn’t have to be achieved 100%, but steps can be taken to move closer to that model of a more liveable and sustainable city,” affirms López.

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