Past and present Town Plans, Jávea

Past and Present Javea Town Plans - a summary

Notes from the Minutes of the Town Planning workshop held on 9th November 2005

The meeting was briefed by Enrik Morera – Town Architect.
The current General Plan (PGOU) dates from 1990 and proceeds from the revision of the 1965 Plan and is groundbreaking in its allocation of land resources in the province of Alicante.

The 1965 Plan consisted of:
45% of land urbanisable
52% of land non urbanisable
1.84% of land urban

potential for growth of 62000 dwellings thought to be for 218000 inhabitants
The 1990 PGOU consists of:

The potential for growth of 48537 dwellings considered to be for 153000 inhabitants
28% of land urban
22% of land urbanisable
49% of land non-urbanisable

In the PGOU of 1990 the non-urbanisable land does not enter into the calculation of dwellings, but the reality is that many exist. The development of this plan was based on a model of extensive, low density housing with plots of 1000-1500 metres.

Since the introduction of the LRAU in 1195 there have been 250 applications of PAIS or PAS. Of which 114 have been approved and land is being developed for 7900 dwellings. We are talking about some 490 hectares of occupied land. One should however note that 56 applications have been denied.

This represents and investment of some 69 million Euros.
The proportion of the 7900 dwellings which have already been completed is unknown; since without a certificate of habitation, a house is not completed. Estimates are that more or less 3000 dwellings have been completed.

Some of these can be seen on the year 2000 aerial photos : Montañar, Balcón al mar etc.

The 1990 plan suffered from lack of revision. The suspension of licenses can temporarily prevent activity in certain areas of the municipality; but the suspension is only in the order of a year after which they come under the new land distribution.

In general terms the current revision process consists of a phase of reporting in which there is Citizen Participation, after which it is made public. There is 30 days (extendable) during which people can present/display objections etc. Immediately afterwards the Initial Approval is made by the Town Hall (that is the politicians). Afterwards it must be approved by the Generalitat Valenciana, and once its published then it is in force.

Good computerised cartography of the Municipality exists, but the town hall has not approved a program to reclassify the urbanisable land.

Granadella is urbanisable land under special protection and Costa Nova was declassified to become urban land.

The great majority of urban development is private. Public initiatives have been very few: The Sports Centre, Rafalet and little else.

Although the data are available to calculate the number of houses and their type, the figures could not be given accurately.

RE: The suspension of licenses from the beginning of October: these were for concrete areas and had to be approved by a (council) meeting. Suspension of agreements on PAIS is allowed. If somebody requests a license in the area where they are suspended the license will be denied and the proprietor does not have a right to indemnification.

Estimates of population increase through immigration are usually inaccurate.

There is no legal limit to the growth foreseen by a PGOU, but the controlling factor in our case is water.

Building licenses have a limited life and expire after a certain time (not specified)

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