Tres Cantos

Tres Cantos is a township and municipality located in the autonomous community of Madrid, Spain, some 23 km north of the capital,Madrid. As a "satellite city" of Madrid which was conceived by urban planners as recently as the 1970s, it is the youngest incorporated municipality in Spain, with a population (2005) of approximately 45,000.

History

Tres Cantos is a 'new community' or planned township, which was first commissioned by the government of Francisco Franco in 1971 to be established on rural land ceded by the city of Colmenar Viejo. Residential occupation began from 1982, and in 1991 it was incorporated as a separate municipality, the newest in all of Spain. Infrastructure development has continued apace, with a current (2005) 5-year development plan by local government authorities allowing for expansion of up to 60,000 inhabitants.

Geography

Tres Cantos was built on former rural lands, about halfway from the northern outskirts of suburban Madrid to the Guadarrama mountain range, which are frequently snow-capped in winter. It lies in a slight valley formed with two eastwards-flowing creeks, bounded to the south by a higher plateau leading to Madrid, and to the west and north by more hilly terrain, which separates the area from the watershed of the Manzanares River. General elevation of the township is around 680 m; the terrain rises towards the foothills of the Guadarrama range to the north and northwest, reaching elevations in excess of 800 m. Within the urban area the terrain is gently undulating.

Description

The township is designed around a central artificial lake and parklands, with designated areas (sectores) assigned for residential, municipal, and industrial purposes. It has many parks, green pedestrian zones, fountains, and several municipal services such as a community library, cultural centre and town hall.

There are two large Catholic parishes in Tres Cantos, one Baptist church (approximately 80 adherents) and one Pentecostal.

The main expressway (autovia) which runs north from Madrid, the M-607, passes close by Tres Cantos on its eastern side.

Demographics

Tres Cantos has 40,000 residents in its official census, though the actual population is around 45,000. With the five-year plan PGOU the city will reach 60,000. Ten percent of the population was born in another country and there are many cross-cultural marriages. Those born in Latin America are the largest group of foreign-born, but as a whole, arrived long before the current influx of Latins to Spain. They are professionals who came to work in Spain with companies and stayed, either because of marriage or standard of living.

While developed as a model community, only 25 percent of the working population both live and work in the city. The majority commute to Madrid for work, using the recently expanded highway M-607 or the excellent public transportation by train and bus to the capital.

Tres Cantos still reflects its pioneering spirit. The nucleus of the population are those who left the concentrated neighborhoods of the capital fifteen years before the "move to the suburbs" fever hit Madrid in the late 90s. This nonconformist spirit shows up concretely in its demographics. Occupants comprise of young, double-income families with 2 to 3 children living in owned apartment buildings and/or town homes. The birth rate in Tres Cantos is double the national average of 1.08 per woman.

With 40 percent of the population younger than 20 years old, Tres Cantos is one of few towns in all of Spain where new schools are being built to accommodate expanding families (in contrast to the closure of schools in the capital). There are three public high schools, nine elementary schools, four public day-care centers and two private schools with a third to be finished this September. Tres Cantos lies just 10 km from the State University of Madrid (Autonoma), for which student housing in Tres Cantos is currently being built.

The education level of the population is high. Some 60 percent of heads of household have a university degree or higher, and 42 percent of housewives as well. The socio-economic status is commensurate with these levels: the upper-income represent 25,1 percent; the upper-middle, 31,8 percent; the middle class 29,7 percent, lower middle, 8,9 percent and low-income, 4,5 percent.

Economy and Industry

Tres Cantos' main economic activity is derived from the existence of various high-tech factories and headquarters in designated zones,including from the pharmaceutical, aerospace and computing industries.

Approximately 20,000 employees from outside of Tres Cantos (predominanty Madrid) commute daily to work in its industrial zones its "Technological Park," home of cutting-edge companies in the aerospace industry. Other multinational corporations with offices and/or production in Tres Cantos are: Lucent Technologies, BP Solar, BDF Nivea, Samsonite, Siemens, Dannon. Most recently, the largest cable provider in Spain, SOGECABLE, relocated here.

Sister cities

Tres Cantos is a sister city to the planned cities of Columbia, Maryland, United States and Cergy-Pontoise, France

External links

• Official web page of the Tres Cantos municipal government (in Spanish)
• Information on Tres Cantos by a resident missionary