A CONTROVERISAL plan to build 2,200 homes at Cala Mosca on the Orihuela Costa will definitely go ahead after two groups decided not to appeal a Valencia Supreme Court ruling(TSJCV) made last November.
The area has been described as the last virgin stretch of coast on the Orihuela Costa.
The TSJCV decision has been made final after the Orihuela Cambiemos political party and the Ministry of Transport decided not to take the matter further.
Cambiemos argued that the development was illegal because there wasn’t a favourable report from the General Directorate of Roads and that drinking water supplies were inadequate for the area.
The State Attorney’s Office acting for the ministry said that the new development’s traffic study showed there would be heavier volumes of traffic and increased noise- especially on the N-332.
Their arguments were rejected by the TSJCV who ordered both parties to pay a total of €3,000 in costs, but were given leave to appeal to the National Supreme Court in Madrid, which they decided not to act on.
The developer Gomendio says that it is now in a position to apply for the first building licences before the summer.
Orihuela council officials said they had to stick to a long-standing deal with the developer or face being sued for millions of euros in compensation, if the agreement was torn up.
A short-lived PSOE-led administration under then-mayor Carolina Gracia offered talks with Gomendio in September 2022 to see if they could look for building plots elsewhere on the Orihuela Costa.
That suggestion came to nothing as it was clear the long battle to stop the Cala Mosca development was realistically over.
The highlight of the campaign to stop the new houses came in 2010 when the European Union paused the plans after receiving a seven-thousand signature petition which argued that flora and fauna would be damaged.
Arguments continued over the years but things went Gomendio’s way in 2021 when they got a positive environmental impact study from the Valencian government.
In February 2023, a slightly-amended Gomendio plan included the expansion of a protected micro-reserve area plus a slight reduction in the number of homes to be built.
The council approved the proposal and land clearing work began in Cala Mosca last April.
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