Altea is now closer to having a new General Urban Planning Plan (PGOU) finally approved after going through a process that lasted twelve years and replacing the current one from 1982. The new document plans to protect 8 million square meters, most of them in the Sierra Bernia mountain rangeand the Isla de Altea and Caralmar area, in Cap Negret on the Algar River and in the Mosmai-Sogai Industrial Park will also become unstoppable. Also the urbanization of Sierra Alta, the upper part of Alhama Candela, Alhama Springs, Caralmar, Marymontaña 4, among others.
With the positive votes of Compromís and PSOE and the votes against PP and Vox, the city council approved at the plenary meeting of the city office held this Tuesday the definitive version of the General Structural Plan provisionally, as its final approval corresponds to the Generalitat Valenciana. From the data presented at the plenary session by councilor for regional planning José Orozco, the declassification of those eight million square meters of land and the construction stand out 3,172 homes over the next 20 years in eight sub-plans to be developed, where 48% of the Cap Blanc plan will be allocated to hotel use.
The review and approval of the new master plan began in February 2011 by the then socialist mayor Andrés Ripoll, the date “where the consultation document of the new PGOU was sent,” Orozco said during his speech to explain the entire process that followed. from this date until Tuesday, November 28. The councilor added that in 2013, when the PP ruled with Miguel Ortiz as mayor, “the union sent us an initial document with strategic environmental criteria that had to be taken into account.”
Two years later, when the Valencian Jaume Llinares was in power with the Compromís-PSOE-Altea amb Trellat coalition, “the first version of the PGOU was created, in 2018 we approved the second version and in August 2019 (with the Compromís-Altea government coalition) PSOE and Jaume Llinares as mayor) underwent a strategic environmental and territorial assessment,” continued Jose Orozco, adding that the assessment “was sent to us in October 2020, which forced us to make a number of adjustments.” Then, in October 2022, “the adjustment was approved and the PGOU was publicly exposed , there were 64 during this period chargeof which 11 were estimated and 4 partially estimated”. And this year, “we received today various reports (the Compromís-PSOE coalition governing with Diego Zaragoza as mayor) approving the latest version of the general structural plan and then submitting it to the Ministry for final approval. ”
The town planning councilor said that this plan “is the sum of different sensitivities, technicians from home and abroad and political representatives with different ideologies. But above all, it is a plan of citizens and for citizens who will mean the future of our city, and not only at the level of urbanism but on an economic and social level, which organizes the territory and gives it cultural and landscape value, which above all projects compact, residential and sustainable urban settlements.
In short, it is a master plan that ““it replaces that of 1982, which was more oriented towards a larger volume of land consumption per residential unit, whether in mountain urbanizations or on the coastal facade.”. In this regard, Orozco pointed out that the ’82 plan “is outdated and does not respond to the current needs of the municipality or citizens. Therefore, this new general plan aims to facilitate the rational implementation of economic activities in a territory such as the new industrial country of Expoaltea and Montahud”.
During the plenary meeting of the councilor for spatial planning, he added that the newly developed land “corresponds to real and objective needs, with rational and sustainable employment in Pontet, Carbonera, Bellas Artes or Cap Blanch. It avoids the diffuse urbanization of the territory, promoting a more compact city with 2 urban centers in Altea and Altea La Vella. And the quality of the urban environment improves, which supports sustainable mobility through the proposed infrastructure and network of corridors that improve the external and internal connectivity of the municipality.” Therefore, “the uniqueness of Altea is strengthened by obtaining a large space for public use and enjoyment in the first line of the coastal strip and basic facilities are proposed, such as the growth of a sports city, a new cemetery and a funeral home, an eco-park and new social and educational uses.
Declassification of land to protect its environmental value
Regarding the objectives of the new general urban planning plan, the mayor of urban planning said that “8 million square meters are declassified, most of them in the Sierra Bernia. However, they will also be declassified on our coastal facade as in Urbanization of Isla de Altea and Caralmar, in Cap Negret, on the Algar River and in the Mosmai-Sogai Industrial Park.” This declassification is done in order to “protect land of great environmental and landscape value.” and this is why the urban soil of this surface will become unbuildable in the upper part of Sierra Bernia, the urbanization of Sierra Alta, the upper part of Alhama Candela, Alhama Springs, Caralmar, Marymontaña 4 and Cap Negret in the north of the river”.
Orozco emphasized the importance of “protecting our natural spaces, the river, the mountains and the old towns of Altea and Altea La Vella” and argued that all this protection “gives us the image of a friendly, sustainable city with care for its heritage and its nature, in short it is Generel, which responds to the needs of the community, which enables to create a new model of sustainable growth, balanced and adapted to new requirements”. For this reason, “the provision of green infrastructure that connects the three great natural areas of mountains, rivers and the sea, with a network of corridors that serve as real routes to democratize the use of natural spaces, is a priority in PGOU”, said the councilor.
On the other hand, he stated that ““It is appropriate to eradicate industrial use from the urban core and offer an alternative location.”. It is therefore proposed to centralize industrial use in Montahud with the generation of new industrial development where “opportunities for economic activity linked to innovation can be created”. And he also said that in the new PGOU “it is proposed to diversify the tertiary use, such as the Pontet sector, where there will be mainly tertiary healthcare, or Cap Blanch, where there will be 48% tertiary use with the implementation of quality hotel use.” ”
3,172 new homes for the next 20 years
In this sense, Orozco indicated that “all these targets have real and sustainable growth for the coming years”. 20 years: there will be 1,200 houses in Bellas Artes; in Carbonera, 245; in Pontet, 216 others, of which 100 will have health care; in Cap Blanc 463 houses and 48 percent of the land to be used for hotels; at Marymountain, 397; in Alhama Candela, 196; in Sierra de Altea II and Urlisa III, 123; and another 528 houses that remain in the consolidated city land. Total: 3,172 houses.”
Orozco drew attention to this at another point in his speech “The current model of low-density housing is closedespecially in the mountains, for the proximity of urban planning around the centers of Altea and Altea la Vella, so that new green areas, parks and facilities are fully accessible to non-motorized transport supported by a network of pedestrian and cycle paths”.
I know too preserves and improves the image of the landscape of Altea as a cultural asset that distinguishes it by protecting elements of its heritage. And the unique character of Altea is reinforced by obtaining a large space for public use and enjoyment of the first line of the Coastal Strip, which gives continuity to the promenade, creating a public park with unique characteristics, thus guaranteeing the existence of a corridor visual and landscape, as is done in the Cap Blanch sector, where the first 200 meters are without buildings and an internal road is designed to free up the first line of the beach,” the councilor pointed out.
Jose Orozco went on to explain that this new plan “is trying to diversify manufacturing activities, very much located in the residential sector and tourism and does so in a manner that is compatible with the protection of the natural environment’.
Finally, the mayor of urban planning pointed out the necessity “revitalize the use of traditional agricultural land, promote the restoration of the architectural heritage of l’Horta and other rural areas”and he showed pride that Altea “will be the first city in the area to have a general structural plan approved with the decisions of the new urban planning law”, adding that “we hope to make it a reality in the first half of 2024”.
PP and Vox vote
During the vote, PP spokesperson Rocío Gómez justified the vote against her group by referring to the forms. “It is true that this PGOU comes from the ancient past and includes a part of all the groups that passed through the city council. “Basically, we are in absolute agreement, but the forms were missing.”, declared a popular speaker; who accused Compromís of “lacking the truth on certain issues, of not providing information to the opposition and of insufficient citizen participation”. Orozco regrets voting against the PP “because it is a plan that adds different sensitivities and includes the proposals of all those who passed the Altea City Council, among them those from the PP who presented the first version in 2015”.
Regarding the vote against VOX, its spokesman Diego Manuel Coello Beltrán justified it by saying that “this is not our general plan and that is why we voted against it. We are not satisfied with the short-termism that this plan represents.” .”