SPAIN’S Supreme Court has ruled that Carboneras Council must change the qualification of the land which houses the controversial Algarrobico Hotel to non-developable land.
Spain’s high court annulled the General Plan of Urban Planning (PGOU) put in place by Carboneras Council in regards to the Algarrobico site, which means it must now be classed as undevelopable land.
However the promoter of the hotel built on the site, Azata, still insists that the 2002 project “was in line with the urban development requirements established at that time, from the location and surface, to the height and colour of the building.”
The company claim that the 1985 Plan for the Tourist Development of the Andalucian Coast allowed the approval of the urban planning for the Algarrobico site in 1988.
The site was ratified in 1997 and again in 1998, with the plan having been in place for 13 years when Azata del Sol eventually purchased the land in 1999.
In a statement, Azata said that the adaptation to urban planning regulations led to the “the granting of the different licences required by all the administrations involved, local, regional and state.”
The company added: “The company did it (building the hotel) legitimately trusting the correct performance of public administrations that mark the current regulations.
“The Supreme Court shows, once again, that public action did not adequately comply with higher standards, but it is not the actions of Azata del Sol that are prosecuted in these proceedings.”
