The Junta has finally got its act together (after ten years), regarding the protection of what little unspoilt space is left, whilst at the same time giving some coastal towns a little more leeway over their beaches.
The classic example favoured by most of how not to develop a beach area is Almuñécar’s Velilla, which was laid down in the late 70’s: block after block of flats over ten stories tall, with insufficient car-parking space per flat and providing only a congested and insufficient thoroughfare for traffic.
The Plan Subregional de la Costa de Granada aims to prevent precisely that and whose central tenet is that the first-line of the coast should be enjoyed by everybody and not only by those that can afford a flat with a commanding view.
With these objectives in mind, municipal authorities cannot authorise the construction of a block of flats within 500 metres of the coastline; i.e half a kilometre from the surf line. Nothing can be built within the first 200 metres, leaving the 300 metres between the two limits for hotels.
Taking into account that the Costa Tropical is 87 kilometres long, we’re talking about 43,500 sq/m of coastal land where residential development is not permitted. Having said that, there are exceptions. The Junta considers that you cannot compare Marbella to La Mamola; not because one is more up market, but because one has no hinterland to expand into: La Mamola is a strip of urban area sandwiched between the steep hills and the beach. The two differ as well because one is saturated by over development and La Mamola is just starting to develop to attract tourists.
“We’re 40 years behind on the Costa Granadina… how can you tell towns where the autovia still hasn’t reached that you can only use this space for hotels?” complains the spokesman for the provincial association of builders and developers. He considers that because of the urban over development of the Costa del Sol, here on the Granada coast we are paying the price for it. He fears that investors are going to walk away from the eastern Costa Tropical because nobody wants to build a hotel where there are no linked services.
The requests for alterations to the Plan Subregional sent in by those affected in Granada, in which it was pointed out that the topography of Granada was completely different to that of Málaga were ignored: the coast is far more abrupt in Granada.
The Junta, on the other hand, considers that Granada has been taken into special consideration because of these topographic limitations, which is why the exceptions were made for places like La Mamola.
Summing up the sentiment held, Granada has always been the last coastal province to received much needed infrastructure and now, precisely when road communication is opening up the coast, development opportunities are denied by Sevilla.
The Plan Subregional is not retroactive, meaning that those towns that have the PGOU in place already, will not be affected, but in the case of Almuñécar and Salobreña, where they are still in the pipeline, these PGOU’s will have to be modified to adapt themselves to the new restrictions.
We say “tardy” in our article title because it’s almost a case of ‘locking the stable door after the horse has bolted,’ as the worst, urban over-development fizzled out with the commencement of the crisis, four years ago. But still, better late than never.
Yet all the above will become irrelevant if the PP wins the Andalusian elections, which will probably be the case, as they have promised to revoke it, believing that it stifles the creation of employment…
(News: Costa Tropical, Andalucia)