Almuñécar Plan General de Ordenación Urbana (PGOU) is like garlic; it keeps coming back on you, and this is the case with the latest announcement by the Mayor, Juan Jose Ruiz Joya.
The fact is that Almuñécar is still stuck with the 1987 PGOU (General Urban Development Plan) which was put in place by Juan Carlos Benavides.

Fruit of the 1987 document, we got the whole of the P-4, which is everything from McDonald’s to the other side of Río Verde; the whole of Avenida Don Juan Carlos I from the bus station to the beach and everything to the east of it, more or less.
Looking back through the Gazette’s online archive you will see that in 2009, the then, Mayor Benavides was fighting with the Junta to push a new one through and even held a referendum amongst the residents of Almuñécar to see if it had their backing… but the PGOU was never passed.
Fast forward to summer 2011 and now with PP Mayor Trinidad Herrera firmly seated in the Mayor’s office, she would get the failed PGOU of 2009 pushed through the Junta de Andalucia. She stated that the PGOU could have its final approval by the first weeks of January 2012.
Quote from that linked article: “This urban expansion consists of 35,000 new dwellings, of which 11,300 will be state-subsidised housing (VPO’s). Also included are 6,000 hotel rooms, two shopping complexes: El Coso, situated next to the main road near the P-4 junction, which will include a permanent bull ring; Rio Seco, on the northern side of the main road (N-340), containing new sports, leisure and educational facilities, as well as extensive green areas.”
Then in February, 2017, the PGOU was on an obligatory public display period so that anybody who had objectionss could register them… Then in September 2019 it was back on display again with the Mayor saying that the PGOU was “not written in stone.” Then in November that year the Mayor announced that the public viewing period was to be extended until the 3rd of January 2020.
Next, comes March 2023 and the Mayor announces that the PGOU had been approved in A Plenary Meeting of the Town Council and that it would be sent off to the Junta for approval! However, in April that same year, it was back on public viewing with 45 days to register objections.
Quoting from that article concerning what the PGOU now entailed: “The plan envisages 4,000 new dwellings, of which 1,500 will be government-subsidised housing (VPOs). Another component is the development of La Sandovala, which is the vega behind the San Cristóbal Mercandona, making it into a park with a Conference Centre next to it.”
Just before we return to the latest developments, we should point out that between 1987 and 2009 there was a lot of jousting between Benavides and the Junta to get a new PGOU consisting of, if I recall correctly, some 50-odd-thousand new houses envisaged.
Unfortunately, the online only goes back to 2009 and, even though we have archive copies of the Gazette in paper going back to 2003, the point has already been made sufficiently about the rocky progess of Almuñécar’s PGOU.
So, present day Mayor Juanjo Ruiz Joya, now says that the Town Hall and the Junta are working on the new PGOU and that they have aready had four meetings towards final approval. The Town Hall is tweaking the document and has to submit the Declaración Ambiental Estratégica.
Editorial comment: so, is it approved and all done and dusted? Nope! Is it closer to being approved? Yes, but with the speed of a striking sloth. Will I see it in my life time? Well, having arrived in 1981, I remember the PGOU that was replaced by the 1987 one. I have seen the urban area of the town more than double in size; seen medical centres demolished and new ones built, but what I have not seen… is the bloody PGOU (post-87) ever actually finished. Hang in there, my ol’ ticker!
(News: Almunecar, Costa Tropical, Granada, Andalucia)
Keywords: PGOU, Mayor, Juanjo Ruiz Joya, Benavides, Trinidad Herrera, 1987, Junta de Andalucia
news, andalucia, granada, costa tropical, almunecar, PGOU, mayor, juanjo ruiz joya, benavides, trinidad herrera, 1987, junta de andalucia