By Martin Myall

Copyright theseasidegazette

The Town Council has formally approved a bylaw concerning the use of building plots within the municipality that have not been developed.

This bylaw mainly affects the TH1 (between La Guardia and the Peñon) although it also includes plots within the urban centre.

This initiative gives birth to a register that will contain all the building plots that have had been urbanised in the last three years but the construction process has been realised. In other words, the Town Hall has given the go-ahead to build, but building has not taken place.

This final approval came through on Wednesday after the period of public exposure where citizens can object to it, had concluded. Consequently, the Town Hall will hire specialised personnel to compose the register.

Once the register has been completed, the plot owners will receive notification and will be given one year to complete the building work, or alternatively, put the plot up for sale. If they do neither, the Town Hall will step in, calculate its worth and the land will be auctioned off.

If a bidder somebody offers more than the fixed price of the plot, the owner will received the established amount but anything above it will go into the municipal coffers (Patrimonio Municipal del Suelo). If no interest is shown in bidding, then the Town Hall will expropriate it so that the land doesn’t end up going back to its original state of inactivity.

So, how did this all come about? Well, some property owners on the TH1 decided to hang on to their properties, naturally, rather than sell it to the hotel companies, knowing that the surrounding area will sky rocket. They applied to develop the land as a plot, to fetch a good price for it when they do decide to sell. But a decade or more has gone by, which is where this new bylaw comes in: build something on your land or sell it.

Editorial comment: the value of the plot settled by the Town Hall is bound to be below its real value, so bidding is likely to go higher than the base price, guaranteeing income for the municipal coffers, perhaps.

Whether this is fair or just strong-arm tactics from the Mayor, is open to debate, so please leave your thoughts below if you have any.

(News: Salobrena, Costa Tropical, Granada, Andalucia)

Keywords: TH1, Developing Building Plots, Bylaw, Hotels, Build or Sell Up

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