Moratorium on road terraces

PRESS RELEASE

Javea will gradually enforce the prohibition of hospitality terraces in parking areas

Planning Department to analyse the proposal from builders to make certain ordinances more flexible

Javea. Friday, 16 March 2012.
The Advisory Committee for Planning and Environment endorsed the ordinance for occupation of public roads that the Department of Public Works is currently drafting. As agreed at the previous session, these regulations prohibit the installation of hospitality terraces in areas intended for parking, thus putting an end to the floorboards and fences surrounding tables and chairs from bars and restaurants in spaces allocated for driveways.

Nevertheless, representatives of the associations taking part in this advisory body (residents and business people) proposed that the Local Council should allow a transitional period so the new regulations are not so damaging to the establishments that have recently invested in these terraces. This moratorium, the details of which have yet to be finalized, will come into effect once the new ordinance has been approved and will allow these terraces to stay at least until the end of the year.

The decision to allow hospitality terraces only in plazas and pedestrian areas has also brought to light the urgent need to address a comprehensive study of traffic and mobility to determine whether vehicle traffic should be eliminated in certain areas. "We have to resolve this issue once and for all," stated the Town Planning Councillor, Pere Sapena, who pointed out that if what is wanted is to create more pedestrian streets and lose vehicular areas in favour of hospitality terraces, “then we will have to find alternative parking." This will also be addressed in the upcoming advisory council meeting, along with the unification of aesthetic criteria to provide a better and more cohesive urban image of the municipality.

Another of the issues discussed at Thursday's meeting was the recent request from the Association of Small Builders, Promoters and Allied Industries in Javea (APCPIA) for the Local Council to study ways to make some of the local building regulations more flexible. The formal request affirms that a few specific points of the municipal regulations, in effect since 1990, have become obsolete and do not adapt to new architectural criteria, as well as prevent more modern building styles. According to Councillor Pere Sapena, the Advisory Committee has deemed logical these technical proposals and will refer them to municipal officials in order to conduct a viability study, without the need to await the completion of the Urban Renewal Plan (or Plan General). Subsequently, these building regulations will be analysed and debated in an upcoming session of the full council, Sapena added.

Finally, discussion of the Patfor (Territorial Forestry Action Plan of the Valencian Community) was left pending since the small builders' association has scheduled a public talk on the 29th of March at 7.30pm in the meeting room of the museum. It was decided to await this information before issuing an opinion.

The next session of the Advisory Committee for Planning and Environment is scheduled for Thursday 12 April, after the Easter holiday.

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