Plan for Torrevieja skyscrapers slammed
The project near the seafront would be an ‘absurd folly’
A CONSTRUCTION company has asked Torrevieja town hall to process an application for an environmental study for a scheme to build nine tower blocks with a maximum height of 23 storeys close to Los Náufragos beach.
The area of land which runs alongside Avenida Desiderio Rodríguez is one of the last zones available for construction in a municipality that has more than 165,000 properties and a registered population of 86,500 inhabitants.
A modification to the 35year-old Town Plan (PGOU) approved during the early part of the last decade allows multi-storey buildings to be constructed in some areas of the town.
The original PGOU had set the limit at six floors, in a municipality which stands in one of the most seismically active zones in Spain – a fact that has been recognised by the builders in their application.
The promoters have stated that the buildings will be spread out ‘so as not to spoil views’ and to allow pedestrian access to the beach.
Socialist party (PSOE) spokesman Andrés Navarro – who is a former council architect – noted that he had been surprised by the announcement. He labelled the project an absurd folly and said it would be completely out of character with the surrounding area.
Allowing it to go ahead would be giving an ‘a la carte’ service to a large construction company, he stated.
Torrevieja mayor Eduardo Dolón responded to Sr Navarro’s statement, lamenting that he had chosen to comment after reading about the project in a regional newspaper.
He stated that a report ‘restricts the maximum height of the buildings which give onto Avenida Desiderio Rodríguez, which cannot be more than 10 storeys high’.
Mini-Benidorm
Other similar projects which could see Torrevieja converted into a mini-Benidorm have stalled due to an intervention from the government’s ministry for the ecological transition.
The plan for twin 26-storey tower blocks behind the nearby Marina International is one of them.
Last year construction company Baraka started advertising one building as a hotel and another as a residential apartment block ‘in a privileged position’ but the campaign has since been withdrawn.