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2,000 NEW HOMES PLANNED FOR VILLAMARTIN
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Sally Bengtsson / 2010-01-12 12:49:03
The Orihuela Costa Consell has given the go ahead to the construction of 2,378 houses on the Coast of Orihuela, near Villamartin. The Popular Party is justifying the development plan with the guarantee of desalinated water, as the lack of enough available water had placed the project on hold.
Juan Cotino, the Orihuela Minister for Urban Development, has stamped the final approval of the planned development at Villamartin PAU-7 North, which includes the construction of over 2,000 houses on more than six hundred and fifty thousand square meters. The plan is understandably not without controversy. The government team, led by People's Party Monica Lorente justified the feasibility of the project on the availability of assured water supply from the desalination plant of San Pedro del Pinatar (Murcia).
The final approval to the partial plan, referred to in the Comprehensive Plan of Orihuela, in place since 1990, has had two major obstacles since it began processing in 2002. The principal was precisely the lack of sufficient water resources to supply the housing provided. In fact, the Segura basin was to issue a report against the proposal, dependent on planning and implementation of the Central Government's Water Plan and the development of desalination.
Secondly, the Generalitat Valenciana has imposed a minimum quota of subsidised housing at 25% of the total planned. In other words, 642 houses in this plan located in the heart of the paradise of tourist residential housing will, in theory at least, have official protection.
The North Villamartin PAU 7 also reserves a total of sixty thousand square meters of green areas.
The opposition rejects this development plan because it falls far short of the initial argument the government team of PP posed when the current term began in 2007 - to diversify and harmonize urban development, drafting a new General Urban Plan to replace the existing one.
The economic crisis has paralyzed the urban activity in the region, but the Government's administrative machinery appears oblivious to the situation, and has not stopped moving the project forward. The plan seems to follow the usual pattern of intensive use of land space, with rows of houses and gardens, with the exception of a reservation of land for affordable council housing.
Within a year the Government has already approved the brand new big shopping centre at Orihuela Costa, near the motorway to Cartagena, which is now well underway. It has given its approval to a plan for nearly two million square meters in Torrevieja-La Hoya, and has released some outstanding developments in the general plan of Jacarilla, on hundreds of thousands of square meters.
Tags: Orihuela Costa, New Homes, Spain
Mr Davies 19-01-2010 / 11:28
Dear sir ,I cant belive what i am reading that the plan to build a further 2000 homes has been approved,has any one in the local government had a look around the area of Villa Martin recently, I wouldnt mind betting that there are at least that many properties of various styles from large villas to apartments already in existance either unsold or unfinnished.
With the economic climate being as it is what hope have they of effectively occupying all of these proerties ,it will end up as so many parts of the area just another untidy unoccupied area where the vacant proerties remain that way and end up falling into disrepair.
i speak from experience we live on a development of 10 Villas and 12 apartments only 3 of the apartments are sold and there are at least 5 of the villas empty ,while we are amongst some of the luckier people where the builder completed the bulk of the development before he lost interest or went bust depending on who you talk to.
I have heard that some one offered to buy one of the villas but the builder turned them down now that really makes no sence to me.
We who have properties there( we have an apartment)are left with the worry that the properties around us are basically falling apart due to lack of maintenance and what the consiquences of this will be on our properties as the ones around us slowly decay.
I really dont see the point of starting new developments, surely even in a system as convoluted as the Spanish one there must be some way a proportion of the properties could be taken over possibly by the builder who proposes the new development and get these vacant properties moved on some sort of compulsery purchase sorry i am getting out of my depth but it seems a better basic plan to me, to finnish off what already exists than putting 2000 properties in that will inevitably end up in the same state as the rest of the area.
The out come in my simplistic eye is that maybe the whole area would then get finnished off anyone who has taken a drive around the Villa martin/Blue Lagoon/Las filipinas/Campoamor areas cant have failed to notice the place is a mess and aparently all for the sake of some finnishing off.
In many cases very little work would be required to bring these areas into order and if somone could come up with a realistic pricing strategy may be this would be the kick start that the area and the building industry needs,then start too think about new developments
Its so sad because it is obvious to me that there has been some vision gone into planning these developments and they could be fantastic places if only they were completed and lived in.
What would be a bonus if someone could come up with a plan to sort out the issues with the services many of us suffer from, i.e water /electricity/gas there are so many people having issues with these .almost all of them more than happy to pay thier bills but due to beaurocricy remain on builders supply after many years,
We have been in this situation for the past 5 years with no end in sight and at the mercy of the utility companies who dont seem to be worried we have made no end of calls and representation to utility companies mainly for electricity to be sorted but they want specific pices of paper that we simply dont have due to issues with the builder (TU) ,surely it would be better for us to be paying our bills rather than them suppying electricity that no one is paying for,though i have bad feelings about the out come of this.
I just think that Spain has turned from the land of opertunity to the land of missed opertunity and unless someone or organisation takes hold of sorting things out the whole place will end up a derelict eyesore
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