The Town Hall has given the go ahead to expropriate 350,000 sq/m of land near the beach because after a decade the landowners could not come to any accord amongst them.
To have an idea of the scale of it (a third of a million square metres is a lot to visualise) we are talking about all the land from the river to the main drag coming down to the beach from the top of town; in other words, all the land behind the beach developments.
This step is hardly surprising because the Plan Turístico Especial Playa represents a lot of money and employment and it has been parked for so long.
But we’re not talking about the Town Hall paying out compensation in the form of compulsory purchases; it’s more along the lines of ‘co-operation’ than ‘compensation.’ What the Town Hall intends is that they will carry out the work and then pass the bill along to the landowners.
The original agreement with the landowners, when the PGOU was finalised in 2001, was that they would develop the land within four years, but a decade has gone by without anything happening. What’s more, they missed the boat during the building boom when there was plenty of credit flying around for such projects.
The building ration permitted on this huge plot is 0.30%, in other words, you can build on 0.30% of a square metre, therefore, if you have a hundred square metres, you can build 30 sq/m. The minimum plot is 1,000 sq/m, so that’s 300 sq/m.
The land, however, is earmarked for commercial services and leisure, as well as hotels, but residential development is not permitted.