URBAN REPORT

[Roger]

 



URBAN PLANNING REPORT

This is an update of the work being undertaken to produce a comprehensive urban plan for Arboleas. There has been a story in circulation that the first stage of the urban plan, Innovacion 13, has been rejected. This is based on a lack of understanding of the process which we have to go through.

The plan has to go to various agencies for their consideration and approval. If they have an issue with any aspect of the plan they signify this with a letter stating their failure to approve the plan. There then follows discussions and sometimes some modifications to meet these objections. Sometimes these issues are major but often they are trivial.
For example the road agency raised the issue of the distance of the consolidated urban line from the motorway (50m or 100m) and the Environmental agency has raised the issue of the accuracy and importance of the ancient animal tracks which crisscross Arboleas.

All this causes us a lot of extra work and discussions which is causing delay in getting final approval. This is all very frustrating particularly because the officials in Almeria and Seville do not share our sense of urgency.  They have stated that the delay is principally because Arboleas did nothing to address this issue for 8 years so it is no point us now complaining if there is a delay with their approval.

We all want a rapid conclusion so that the town can move forward. However it is essential that we have an urban plan which cannot be challenged and which will set a firm framework for the future.
We have a clear objective and a clear path towards this objective. We are working as fast as we can to achieve the correct result. There is no point in producing a plan, as in 2009, which will then be rejected.
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The following is a translation of the report in IDEAL newspaper on 11th June.
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The government team in Arboleas has, in recent days, proceeded to discuss the details of the General Revision of the Urban Plan of the municipality. Specifically, the urban document consists, first, of the advance approval for those homes which are outside of urban regulation with the aim of integrating them into their respective urban centres. On this point, the Mayor of the Town Council of Arboleas, Cristobal Garcia, explained that "the fundamental issue is to address the question of legality, as indicated by the decree of the Junta de Andalucía, in order to bring the normality of basic services to those homes which currently lack them, as well as ending the instability and insecurity they have suffered for too many years."

Similarly, this document complements Innovation 13 which is in the phase of gathering the relevant reports. This is basically the definition of areas to be consolidated with the aim to regularize about 1800 homes that would become legal. Therefore, the purpose of the General Revision of the Arboleas PGOU is to complete the planning process by resolving the internal problems of the urban centres in those areas that are not consolidated, and to delineate the areas built outside the urban boundaries, as indicated by the current Decreto of the Junta of Andalucia by including them in the proposed revision. Cristobal Garcia stated that for this process of review it will be necessary to provide information, with maximum detail, for all the various departments, such as:

Archaeological Report of existing reservoirs, as well as some new ones that have been detected and the proposal to protect them to ensure their preservation.

Hydrological Report for all those centres that may be affected by existing channels.

-Environmental Report to diagnose the current situation and propose new plans for the future, as well as repair the damage caused using compensatory actions and to provide for the protection of areas with special uniqueness for the general environmental interest of Arboleas.

To conclude this process, " essentially it would give the people of Arboleas a fully updated planning regulation, with the future prospect that the development of Arboleas will return to normality, and we will not again make past mistakes, which we absolutely do not want for  any people, let alone ours, "the Mayor pointed out.
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