Housing plan poses flood risk, town residents claim
The municipality already has too much sealed soil and housing, according to complainants
SAN Miguel de Salinas town hall is attempting to reclassify two large plots of rural land in Blue Lagoon for the construction of housing and a commercial centre.
The residents’ association San Miguel Arcángel has objected to the scheme on the grounds that the municipality already has too much sealed soil and housing, and that the proposed location is in the bed of a watercourse.
The land in question is a strip that runs along the edge of Eagle’s Nest urbanisation up to the edge of the municipal border with Orihuela, where a roundabout is being built at the junction to Villamartín.
Indeed the road at this border runs through the dip and floods every time there is significant rainfall.
Part of it is already occupied by El Limonar private school as a result of a previous deal between the council and the same promoter.
The regional planning law ( LOTUP) required the town hall to publish the plan for 20 days, which it did on August 1,
thus enabling the association to lodge its objections.
They pointed out that the municipality has a population of 6,034 residents and 7,536 ‘ urban units’, of which 5,477 are housing therefore the proportion of homes to inhabitants is 0.9.
According to the regional government’s territorial strategy, which the association
notes is mandatory to comply with, it is a priority target for 2030 to maintain artificial usage of land below the European average.
However the European average is 250 square metres per inhabitant and San Miguel has already far exceeded this, and the regional average, with 373m2 of occupied land per inhabitant.
And the Blue Lagoon area has the most artificial land in the municipality, with housing covering 7578%, other constructions 5%, roads, car parks and pedestrian areas without vegetation 15%, and artificial green areas and urban woodland 5%.
Moreover, according to the region’s flood risk prevention plan ( PATRICOVA), these particular plots of land are classified as an area of ‘ dangerous geomorphology, valleys and ravines with flat beds’, and with a risk level of seven.
The LOTUP requires that new urban developments ‘ avoid areas at risk of significant flooding’, and the PATRICOVA requires that projects ‘ cannot result in an increased flood risk’.
“Land that is not classified as urban and which is affected by a danger of flooding cannot be reclassified as urban land or land for potential urban development,” states the PATRICOVA.
As an alternative, the association proposes that these plots remain classified as rural land, ‘ as established in the rules of the PATRICOVA’.
“They should be managed in accordance with regional laws on floodable areas of green infrastructure,” they insist, which would entail maintaining their natural characteristics so that they can reduce the impact of any flooding and provide social, economic and environmental benefits.