Nerja’s biggest surface, car park is going to be turned into a plot for 290 dwellings; we’re talking about Huertos de Carabeo, right in the centre of town.

Only 300 metres away from the Balcón de Europa, this privately owned plot was previously earmarked for housing but the property crash came and it was turned into a paying car park – before that, it was free parking up to 2011.

Furthermore, since the year 2000 it has also been the site for the October fair and then turned back to parking each year.

The owners of the land, Priamo Real State S.L., say that it’s time to reactivate the housing project, requesting a building-land category from the Town Hall. The company also owns land next to Río Chíllar, which they are willing to cede for municipal use as an alternative fairground,

So, the Huertos de Carabeo plot, which encompasses 36,000 sq/m will sprout 290 dwellings, 87 will be VPO’s (council houses). They will also cede another plot of 1,280 sq/m for another 63 VPO’s.

Furthermore the Carabeo plot will have an urban park on 15,000 sq/m of land, so it won’t all be housing.

As for the Town Hall, the Councillor for Urban Development, Anabel Iranzo (IU), said that they have another meeting with the landowners lined up to discuss ‘improvements’ to the project.

“We are aware that although it is an attractive plot it must fit in with standing, town-planning regulations, meaning any modifications must be approved by the Junta de Andalucia,” she explained.

The Town Hall could always slap a compulsory purchase order on the property but that would literally take years. The developers, on the other hand, calculate two years to get it approved and another seven to build it all – almost a decade.

(News: Nerja, Axarquia, Costa del Sol, Malaga, Andalucia)