Sagunto plants 268 new trees chosen through participatory budgeting
Sagunto City Council has started adding 268 new trees to the municipality's streetscape, with an investment of €74,964.80, aiming to finish planting by early November.
Sagunto City Council has this week launched a plan to add 268 trees to streets and avenues across the municipality, both in the town centre and in Puerto de Sagunto (coastal district). The project did not come from a planning office: it is one of the proposals that won the most support from residents in the last edition of the Participatory Budgets (a scheme where residents vote on how part of the municipal budget is spent). The cost comes to €74,964.80, tax included, and the council's target is to have every tree in the ground before November begins.
Behind that figure lies a double purpose. On one hand, giving better tree cover to areas that currently have less of it; on the other, gradually removing trees that cause problems — whether because they are damaged or because they complicate street cleaning and maintenance — and replacing them with species chosen for each specific street.
That second goal required groundwork first. Before any planting began, municipal technicians removed stumps and unhealthy trees, and drew up a street-by-street study to decide which specimens needed replacing and which species would suit each location best.
The results are already visible. In Puerto de Sagunto, Avenida Adolfo Suárez now has 34 newly planted Schinus (pepper trees). In the town centre, around 23 Bauhinia trees have found a home on Calle Garroferal de Lázaro, in the Oliva rural area, and along Vía Augusta. Crews are currently working on Calle Alcalá Galiano, also in Puerto de Sagunto.
The plan does not stop there. Once that stretch is finished, the work will move to Boulevard Alcalá Galiano — up to the end of Boulevard Churruca — and later to Avenidas Montíber and Palmosa, where some trees are also planned for side streets. Barring weather delays or changes in pace, the council expects to wrap up the whole process between late October and the first days of November.
Mayor Darío Moreno framed the project as answering a long-standing request from residents: the proposal, he noted, was the most-voted one in the previous round of participatory budgets, and the goal now is to reach close to 270 new trees, with more to be added next year. His point was straightforward: every extra tree means more shade, less pollution, and more pleasant streets to walk along, and planting one today means picturing what the city will look like two decades from now.
The mayor himself noted that this first phase does not close the process: the council's plan is to keep adding trees in future campaigns, so that the city's tree cover grows progressively rather than in a single push. That phased approach also allows species choices to be adjusted based on how each already-planted stretch performs, depending on how well it adapts to the specific conditions of each street.
The public backing behind this proposal is no small detail: the participatory budget round in which it was voted reached 2,086 voters, almost double the 1,127 who took part in the previous round — the highest turnout recorded so far in this process. That jump in resident involvement helps explain why a tree-planting proposal grew into a project affecting several neighbourhoods at once.
The Participatory Budgets mechanism lets any registered resident submit and vote on concrete proposals for their own street or neighbourhood, and this planting drive is an example of how an idea born through that channel ends up becoming visible work within a matter of months. The more people take part in the vote, the more weight winning proposals carry when it comes to demanding they get carried out, which helps explain why the council prioritised this project among the dozens of ideas submitted in the last round.
While this planting drive from the previous round is being completed, the Participatory Budgets process is already looking ahead: since 15 September, Sagunto residents have been able to vote on proposals competing for a place in the 2027 edition, under the same direct-participation model that drove the 268 trees now being planted. The council hopes this new round will match, or even beat, the level of resident involvement seen in the previous one.
The council frames this planting drive as part of a broader, ongoing effort to renew the city's tree cover, choosing species street by street with an eye on a greener, more sustainable municipality in the medium term. According to aytosagunto.es, with additional background on citizen participation from an earlier report by the council itself, and on the new 2027 round from elperiodic.com.