Medio Ambiente restrains the construction of 1,466 houses in Alhaurín Grande
The urbanization would have created large areas of damage in a zone of ecological value
FERNANDO J. PEREZ -
Not reducing the number of houses, nor grouping them so that they occupy the less ground, nor presenting/displaying a new project. The Medio Ambiente has declared “nonviable” the plan to construct a total of 1,466 houses - in form of villas as of blocks of up to 9.5 meters high in Barranco Blanco, a place of 146.7 hectares of high ecological value in Alhaurín elGreat Grande (
This is the second declaration of negative environmental impact received for the urbanization, located in the heart of the mountain range between the municipalities of Coín, Mijas and Alhaurín el Grande. First it was submitted in 2007 July, but the City council of Alhaurín, governed by Juan Martín Serón (PP), contributed and approved the modified documentation for the project that reduced the constructed surface area and concentrated the houses in the sector. Everything was in vain.
The declaration of environmental impact of Partial Plan of Arrangement Barranco Blanco is the last administrative act of already the ex- Environment delegate of the Junta in
In the first place, it indicates that the partial plan proposed by Ondobide “does not adapt to the topographical conditions” when “locating houses and other infrastructures in zones with steep slopes” and “with slopes over 40%”. To accommodate the houses in these zones would force (the developer) to make “clearings of great spread” and “almost vertical slopes”, that they would cause a “great visual and landscaping impact” in this “ecological highway” between the mountain ranges of Mijas, Alpujata, Blanco, Bermeja and Coín.
The Junta considers that the nonviable project would affect the acquifers, as much by supplying the housing as by the impact of the waste. The promoters tried to obtain 17 liters per second of a water that presents/displays a hydric deficit of 54 annual cubic hectómetros. “The resources available are insufficient to serve with quality assurances and amount the present demands”, is in the declaration of the Junta. In addition, it is alerted to the risk of contaminating the acquifers of the localities of Coín and Monda and their supplies for human consumption if the system of purification proposed by the promoter failed.
The urbanization would affect the Alaminos river considered a Place of Communitarian Importance by the European Union from year 2006. In the zone, the Environment technicians found “great number of signs” of species protected like the wild cat, the gineta, the weasel or garduña. The mountain range is, in addition, area of feeding of vulnerable birds like the perdicera eagle, the royal eagle or the hawk.
As far as the flora, 96% of the sector that would be urbanized contains communities contemplated in the European directives as requiring conservation.