This article reports on a new approach to urban planning known as soft planning and research into one particular case: The Catalan Neighborhood Law. This law affects 830,000 people (11% of the Catalan population), 93 districts, and 76 towns and cities, and has overseen expenditure of 1 billion euros, and promoted more than 300 integrated urban intervention projects in five years, all with a single goal: The conversion of districts and urban areas into better and more sustainable places in which to live. We discuss the most significant impact of this law in Catalonia and its use as a soft planning tool.