Controversial Costa housing project passed
“Although we don’t like it, it has all the legal elements for approval,” stated ruling PSOE
THE MODIFIED project for the urban development of Cala Mosca in Orihuela Costa was approved by the local government committee (JGL) on Tuesday, effectively green lighting the project to build 2,200 homes on the last natural stretch of the municipality’s coast.
The Socialist party (PSOE), which has governed in coalition with Ciudadanos (Cs) since last year, abstained, letting the motion pass with the votes of their council partners. PSOE spokeswoman María García Zafra said this was ‘regrettable’ and assured they have ‘never supported or encouraged’ this project, ‘and we have always rejected it in council meetings’.
She noted the Alameda del Mar urbanisation project ‘has been in the town hall for about 20 years’, and by the time they took power the administrative procedure was already ‘totally advanced’, only lacking the approval of the regional department for the ecological transition, ‘which came last June’.
“Although we don’t like it, it has all the legal elements for approval,” said Sra García.
She emphasised that mayoress Carolina Gracía has insisted that all the conditions are met ‘scrupulously, requesting all the necessary reports from the municipal secretary, who is the one in the end that approves the continuation of the administrative procedure’.
“If there had been a legally solid formula and one which did not mortgage the future of Orihuela in order to save Cala Mosca, there is no doubt the PSOE would have put it on the table,” the councillor said.
She also reminded that the mayoress had tried to negotiate an alternative settlement with the developer, ‘but it was clear the company had no interest’.
“Manoeuvring to suspend or block the project would have exposed Orihuela to paying millions in compensation which this city cannot allow,” concluded Sra García.
This regret did not satisfy
opposition party Cambiemos, who had initially supported the coalition but now accused their fellow left-wing former allies of ‘handing themselves over to Cs’. They claimed C’s ‘manoeuvres’ could have been avoided if the mayoress had heeded their ‘months of warnings’ by preventing the appointment of ‘certain’ people in the town planning department, or by ‘questioning more than doubtful interpretations about conditions for water resources’.
“If Cs had been stopped before there would have been favourable reports that now do not exist and alternatives could have been explored,” claimed Cambiemos, who said the project will ‘damage the urban development and environment of the municipality’. Cambiemos noted that two of the Cs councillors on the JGL are being investigated for possible abuse of their powers, Luisa Boné and Ángel Noguera, the latter in two separate cases.
Sra Boné has noted that this arose from a ‘false and malicious’ complaint presented by Cambiemos, stating that neither she nor Sr Noguera had powers for contracts in the period alluded to. Although the mayoress relieved Sr Noguera of control over his departments this week (see report on p8), he was allowed to retain his seat on the JGL.
Last Friday’s announcement that the project would be approved prompted a protest by campaign group Salvemos Cala Mosca, which is trying to save the cove from development. On Saturday, their supporters marched from the N332 pedestrian bridge at Rocio del Mar, and they are trying to raise funds for a legal challenge against a building licence being granted.
C’s leader and town planning councillor José Aix told Radio Orihuela there could have been legal consequences if the project had not been approved within five years of the regional government’s coastal ‘green infrastructure’ plan (Pativel), which is on May 4 and would have introduced restrictions that would have ruled out the housing project.
Cambiemos have expressed doubts about the finality of this deadline and also have an appeal to stop the project in conjunction with the national roads department, which forecast it would cause serious congestion on the N-332.