Physical planning strategies: the Regional Plan for the way of St james in the autonomous region of Castile and Leon.

The Way of St James is a cultural phenomenon with an enormous power of attraction over the local councils through which this pilgrims' road runs. In addition to helping to protect and showcase the Way, the Regional Plan also aims to determine a model of land use that will enhance and direct urban and socio-economic development in the municipalities coming under its aegis. The Way is seen as the cornerstone and driver of a social and economic reactivation that will contribute to the creation of a balanced territorial model underpinned by strategies of sustainable development and the rational use of resources.

The Regional Plan includes within its scope all protection and conservation areas directly related to the Way, and those whose modification could have an effect on a protection and conservation area. In the Autonomous Region of Castile and Leon the Way of St James covers 641 Km, crosses 87 municipal districts and 114 centres of population, with a total of close on half a million inhabitants. The main features of the territory through which the pilgrims' road runs are its rural nature and diversity, with a highly uneven population distribution.

This Regional Plan lays down a framework of reference that provides an organised basis on which to develop economic activities associated with this cultural phenomenon, regulating and defining mechanisms to reconcile a diversity of initiatives, be they public or private, regional or local.