Juan Manuel del Pino (Calp): «The new partial plans must give at least 10% to public housing» Juan Manuel del Pino (Calp): «The new partial plans must give at least 10% to public housing»
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Juan Manuel del Pino (Calp): «The new partial plans must give at least 10% to public housing»

January 09 from 2025 - 14: 00

With more than a year and a half in the current legislature 2023-2027, Juan Manuel del Pino is a councillor for Urban Planning, Infrastructure, Quality and Urban Image, Parks and Gardens, Integrated Water Cycle, MSW and Street Cleaning of the Calp City Council. Del Pino entered Calp politics in 2019 with the Ciudadanos party and managed to reach an agreement with the Popular Party, the then party of the current mayor Ana Sala, becoming a councillor for Urban Planning.

Since 2023, Juan Manuel del Pino has been a member of Somos Calpe, a party founded by Sala, with which they won six councillors in the last municipal elections. After the agreement with the PSPV-PSOE and Compromís, they have managed to form a large team at the head of the Council. We review with him the local news in all his councillorships to find out first-hand where they are.

QUESTION. What role does the declassification of the Garduix I and II, Pla Feliu I and II and Ràfol I and II sectors play for Calp and how does this balance environmental conservation?

ANSWER. These are six sectors that have not been programmed since 98, when our last General Plan was approved. In the last legislature we had the idea of ​​starting to work seriously on this matter. That is to say, since they are not programmed, they are considered rural and the law allows us to declassify them and change them from developable to non-developable.

We shared this idea with Ana Sala in the last legislature, and now in this new one, with the support of the PSOE and Compromís, we decided to take the step forward which was to start the process for a specific modification of the General Plan. In addition, the management system that we intend is that of expropriation, so that on the corresponding day the owners will be given a price per square metre, the City Council will have the commitment to pay them according to the estimated price and those 350.000 m² will become part of a public facility, free, as a green area, and also a facility such as cultural, sports, even health, education... Our municipality needs many facilities and precisely a part of these sectors can be allocated to this.

The value is twofold, because, on the one hand, we are going to greatly increase our green spaces. It is called the green lung because this very important wooded area that we are going to maintain is within the municipality. On the other hand, we are going to provide the aforementioned facilities and in due time it will be decided what corresponds.

And I dare say that it has one more value, which is somewhat in the people's feelings, and that is that the town is sufficiently developed urbanistically speaking. There is a large area where we will not be able to act, they are consolidated urban areas, this is not the case of unplanned lands like this one.

At least with this measure we are saving a part of the territory that would otherwise have been urbanised. Specifically, the plan contemplated it for detached housing, that is, chalets. We already have enough chalets. So this is a relief so that the village does not continue to become overcrowded.

Q. What is the next step in acquiring the land?

R. What we have approved is that the file for the specific modification of the plan be initiated. From now on, the urban planning department is working on a draft modification of the plan and on an initial strategic document. When we have both documents, we will take them to the plenary session again and then the plenary session can approve them or not. If they are approved, we would already have the specific modification in progress on a provisional basis, let's say. It is the Territorial Commission for Urban Planning, the Regional Ministry, who has to give the final approval, because it is a structural modification of our plan. Once this is done, what has been contemplated in that draft is put into practice. In principle, free spaces, spaces for facilities and, of course, economic compensation, in this case for expropriation, to the owners.

Q. Has any kind of relationship been established with the Ministry regarding the Green Lung of Calp?

R. No, not really directly. The fact is that the times we live in are favourable. It is a matter of common sense, we are trying to protect the environment in every sense, and this is a measure that is directly related to that. We are in favour of economic and tourist sustainability, of our environment. Therefore, the Regional Ministry should be very much in favour of such a measure.

Q. There is considerable concern about the urban development plans being developed in the Les Salines area, both because of the environmental impact and because it is a flood zone. What can you say about the permits for these plans?

R. El Saladar is PP4, a partial plan approved a long time ago and which is currently at a peak of development. I suppose it is due to economic situations, that Calp is in fashion, that it has future possibilities and that investors and developers are betting on it. This is a very attractive area, it is not on the front line, but it is very central. Of course, it is consolidated urban land, since there are already many buildings, and on the plots that are there right now there are six or seven block constructions underway.

Regarding the VAPF, specifically the three towers that raised the alarm on the part of ACEC (Cultural and Ecological Association of Calpe), it can only be said that this one, as well as all the others, which are being put into operation right now, comply with the current regulations that we have in our General Plan and our Urban Planning. Therefore, if they comply, a license must be granted.

Whether we like or dislike the construction of towers is another matter, but of course they are absolutely within their rights and the City Council is obliged to grant a licence when it meets all the requirements.

It is true that in the last legislature we also made a specific modification to the plan that was very important: the elimination of the free height. Until then, buildings could have the height that allowed them to raise their entire building capacity. For this reason, we made a certain limit on the maximum and minimum occupation of the plot and this meant avoiding the construction of screens and avoiding the towers being able to rise too high, because they had to consume the building capacity in a minimum space of the plot, which forced them to go down.

At the moment, depending on the size of the plot, the maximum tower that can be built is 19 stories. In fact, there are some already completed that reach this number. But the average, let's say, is 15 stories. These three VAPF towers, for example, are 15 stories high.

What we are trying to achieve is to homogenise the skyline, so that the Oltà mountain range is not obscured, as is the case with Suitopía from so many points. This modification affected not only PP4, but the entire coastline, that is, Partial Plan 1, 2 and 3. It therefore also affects La Fossa, where two towers are also going to be built that comply with the plan, but which will reach 18 floors. It will be heavily criticised, but we cannot do anything about it, they comply with the regulations. But we have avoided at least two or three tower projects in this area of ​​30 floors or more, taller than Suitopía.

We are therefore satisfied with the future that awaits us. We will have to develop what is necessary, but in harmony with the whole area.

Q. What about new licences? Do they also have to adapt to the new height limit?

R. All the licenses that are coming in have to adjust to the height modification. That is, to that modification that avoids screens and excessive heights.

Q. Why was this limitation decided upon? Was it for a specific project?

R. Well, it was because at the beginning of the last legislature I was already a councillor for urban planning and two permits for towers of more than 30 floors were granted. I spoke with the mayor and she considered that it was appropriate to limit this, because the impact on the urban landscape was going to be very high. And at that time we provisionally suspended the permits.

Those that had entered even entered into that suspension and we began the specific modification of the plan. The modification, that of 14, for example, took about three years. At that time, once it had come into force, the possibility of submitting licenses was reopened, but those that are submitted have to comply with the new regulations, the new ordinance.

Q. What plans do you have to modernise or create new parks and gardens in Calp?

R. The intention of increasing our green spaces is always attractive and that is what we need. In other words, we need spaces. In any case, Calp also has to be aware that it is a municipality that has its privileges. We have the Oltà mountain range right next to the town centre, which is wonderful. We have a very important area in Toix, which to the north faces Maryvilla, but to the south-west we have a huge area that is also a green area, although it is not as visitable or easy as Oltà. We have many other green spaces scattered around, but not of that importance.

The policy of increasing spaces is being followed during the last legislative period and also in this one. There are spaces, there are green areas that are private, which the city council is acquiring through compensation with development units.

So, every time we acquire an extension, a certain amount of surface area, we are incorporating it into our free zones heritage owned by the city council. Also, every time a partial plan is developed, there are always spaces dedicated to green zones that logically must be fulfilled and the spaces for public facilities in the same way. The most important project now is the declassification of the six sectors to acquire green zones.
As for parks, we have the most important and visited ones in the city centre and we have some scattered around in urban areas. The creation of new parks is always a priority, but we need to have the right place and the right time. Today what we do is maintain, renovate and improve, especially in urban areas.

Q. What is the current status of the new roads that are being built and what impact will they have on Calp?

R. During the last legislative session, a section of Vial J was opened, section 1, which went from the area where the nursery is located to Avenida de la Generalitat. That section was opened. We are now working on it and we hope to open, perhaps before next summer, section 6, which connects Avenida de Rumanía with this section 1 that we have mentioned.

It is very important because it creates a ring road in the municipality, which prevents you from having to cross the municipality via Avenida Diputación or Avenida Ejércitos Españoles to go to the Fossa beach area or to leave Moraira.

You can go directly from the National Highway, go down Avenida Generalitat, join Vial J section 1, then go to Avenida Casanova and there join section 6 to Avenida Rumanía and from there go out to the area at the end of Juan Carlos I, Playa de la Fossa, exit for Moraira or La Vallesa and the whole area. This is regarding Vial J.

Then, in this legislature we also have two very important roads planned. One of them, the project is underway. It is the T road, which goes down to Puerto Blanco. A very important road because right now the rehabilitation works of Puerto Blanco are being carried out. It is going to be very important for its use, very attractive. It is a road that has always been pending because it is in very poor condition, and it is even dangerous. We hope that within 2025 it will start and in 2026 it will be finished.

Another very important road is road E, which goes up to Empedrola. As everyone knows, the road that leads there is currently dangerous, it has to cross the Quisi ravine in very poor condition. It is a project that has been started, it is still a little green because improvements need to be made, but the hope would be that before the end of the legislative period it would be started, or finished.

Q. What is the status of the projects for the T and E roads?

R. The project for the T road is about to be fully drafted. There is still work to be done because, once it is drafted, some expropriations have to be made in order to be able to enter within the limits of the road. And the E road has a first project, but it also needs to be improved. Some expropriations are also needed.

We hope that Vial T will be finished in 25-26 and Vial E will at least be started before 27.

Q. What measures are being implemented to improve housing accessibility, especially for young people and low-income families?

R. As everyone knows, this is a major concern for this government and for anyone else. The difficulties in accessing housing in Calp are no different from those in other municipalities, especially tourist ones. Here we have two options: social housing and public housing.

As for social housing, we need an incentive for developers to want to build social housing. At the regional level, some laws are being modified to try to speed up and facilitate the promotion of these homes, establishing maximum prices. As a municipality, we have entered into a plan with the Generalitat to cede land for social housing, but we currently do not have much availability in this regard. There are two or three rather small spaces that we will make available.

What we do expect is that in future urban developments, new partial plans, there will be a percentage of buildable land reserved for VPO. We will be very attentive to this to ensure that it is complied with, because it is also the law. At least 10% must be allocated for public housing and we think that this should be complied with.

On the other hand, we have also prepared, although it was not approved in plenary at the beginning of the legislature, but we will insist again, a modification of the plan so that specifically in the Benicolada area, a part of it that is currently developed as tertiary, residential is also allowed. Then, this tertiary area could house tertiary warehouses or two first floors for tertiary, for industry, for businesses, establishments and the upper part up to four or five floors, perhaps six at most, for VPO. This is a very ambitious project, but we have to make a very important draft plan that today we have not yet started to work on, but we do have the initiative. Due to disagreements, the start of these works was not approved at the beginning of the legislature, but I think that we should return to it and that in the future, it will be years, but there will be an important pool for VPO.

There is also another part of Benicolada where a social housing project was carried out many years ago, but for now there is still nothing certain. And then, what we do have an opportunity with is public housing. In this sense, they are public lands, therefore, they are public, to create rental housing for young people and for the elderly.

We will have to work on both paths, the VPO and the rental housing. For the rental housing we have in mind a piece of land next to Las Salinas. It is a partially floodable area, but today its characteristic is an educational facility. The modification we have to make is to make it residential. The residential area is not incompatible with having a slight flooding problem, so this possibility will be studied in some way. We have not started that modification, but we have it on the table and that path for rental housing will remain open.

Q. Is there already an urban development plan that contemplates this 10% of VPO?

R. Right now, in the draft partial plan for Senieta, which is already underway, we are considering that the developer will have to allocate 10% for this. And in another plan, Buenavista, which has an approved development project but is yet to be developed, we are also considering that the developer will allocate 10% to this. In due time, the legal services will have to take charge of obtaining these transfers to the public from the urban development.

Q. Can the City Council create this type of housing?

R. The City Council could do it on its own, but today we do not have the capacity to manage these matters directly, rather it would be an indirect management. In other words, we facilitate, promote, give the opportunity, facilitating as much as possible, but to do direct management, to become promoters and somehow have to contract a construction for it, today we do not.

Even the rental provision I mentioned would probably not be a direct management, it would be an indirect management. Giving it to a company to do the math and decide to build spaces for rent and in exchange amortize it over the years with the rents that come from there. To do this they must do an economic viability study. It would be difficult for the city council to do it directly. We do not have the capacity in our technical services to take charge of something like that.

Q. Is it already known which land could be used for the Generalitat's Vive Plan for public housing?

R. We have an idea. There are a couple of plots in the old town that could be interesting. They are not big, so they would not yield a lot of housing, but they are interesting in terms of revitalising the old town with VPO.

Q. The new MSW collection service has only recently started. There were many complaints about the service before. What innovations have been implemented since the new contract?

R. The service began in July 2023 and the contractor's aim was to improve the previous service, in terms of services, machinery, and digitalisation, which was very necessary. And then, in addition, Acciona presented its improvements that gave some more advantages than we expected.

The feeling is that everything seems insufficient, meaning that despite the fact that minimum standards were established to be able to provide the service and that Calp was truly the cleanest municipality in Spain, we have difficulties, but I think we have made progress.

Of course, the company has provided the machinery that it was supposed to provide, it has provided the personnel that it was supposed to provide, but our municipality is a bit complicated, especially because of the housing estates. We have the town centre under much better control, but the housing estates less so.

Probably, at some point, there will have to be a price review or a contract modification, we will see. But, for example, the issue of digitalisation is underway, it is working very well and the machinery that has been put into operation, new machinery, has also been noted to be in very good condition. Perhaps more staff is needed, which we have tried to negotiate with the company. Now we are at the point where we are trying to have everything under control when the summer season comes or even Easter, when so many people come, and that is when the difficulties start to be more important.

Q. What actions could be taken to improve the service in the urbanizations?

R. Here is an idea that is fundamental: citizen collaboration. That is, if people are not aware that they have to recycle, that they have to comply with the schedules for taking out the garbage, that they have to deposit their belongings in certain areas or that they have to prune on certain days, it is very difficult.

We cannot have a guard behind people's back every day. This is a point that we are working very hard on, we are trying to give maximum diffusion to awareness, to communication. The Mare Consortium of the RSU is also making efforts. We even have mobile eco-parks, which did not exist before, that come on Saturdays and now they are going to come on Fridays and Wednesdays. The idea is to make people aware that they have to go and deposit each waste where it belongs.

On the initiative of the Mare Consortium, we are trying to give people an incentive, to reward this good deed. If you go to the ecopark right now and deposit your belongings there, a mattress, a piece of furniture, an armchair, whatever you want, you will get points.

These points go to the city council and can then be applied to citizens' bills. This is very important, it is what we expect from the collaboration of citizens to improve the service.

Q. What progress has been made in managing the entire water cycle and how is sustainability being addressed in this area?

R. Water has two main aspects, supply and sanitation, which also includes rainwater collection. Regarding supply, Calp is at the forefront. The concession we have is with the Vall de Laguar community and we have our Lucifer well, which we share with the Vall de Laguar and Murla, but which supplies us with water with excellent and abundant characteristics. We have even gone through periods of drought that have affected the well, naturally, but they have not caused any alarm.

Then we have a desalination plant where, just recently, we finished remodeling to prepare it to work in more difficult, harsher conditions, because due to climate change, groundwater is becoming more and more salinized.

What do we do with the desalination plant? Well, when we don't want to make full use of the Lucifer well, or when it is needed, we connect water from the desalination plant to the network and we are doing very well.

In addition, in terms of supply, there has been a major modernisation by Aguas de Calpe, also digital, and the truth is that we are an example in terms of efficiency. We are above 90% efficient.

What we are most behind on, and this is something historical, is the issue of sanitation and rainwater collection. It is something that comes from decades ago, because then a lot of construction was done, especially in areas with chalets, and it was not taken into account. So, there is a master plan for sanitation and rainwater that we have approved in plenary and that we are already putting into practice. This master plan is very ambitious, it tries to cover all the needs of the municipality.
The estimated cost to cover the needs is 111 million euros. This money has to be found somehow, and we have prepared some strategies for this. Among others, one that we will have to approve recently is a temporary water tariff to help with some initial actions. We have determined five more urgent actions, mainly rainwater collection.

Another problem we have in the municipality is flooding when a downpour falls due to our topography, the two ravines, the flat part we have before reaching the sea. A plan has been made with five priorities and, now in 2025, we are already beginning to act on some of them.
There is another amount of money that comes from improvements made by Serhico, the former concessionaire. We have the fee paid to us by Aguas de Calpe. In short, we are saving up with all of this. The main thing is to get started, because until now we had not started seriously.

And of course, we have our famous flooded park on the horizon, for which the Confederation has a project. Everything is well advanced, but there was a flora micro-reserve area for which the Ministry of the Environment must give its approval, its approval, and we are at that point. We have presented the Ministry with the documentation corresponding to the limits of the micro-reserve and, with this, the Confederation can now begin the execution of the project.

In addition, nowadays, there is a thorough control every time new buildings or partial plans are made in terms of whether they are properly equipped with sanitation obligations such as storm drains.

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