The Generalitat has estimated the compensation that would have to be paid, if it were to declassify the 450,000 square metres of land at Cala La Mosca, at a minimum of 30 million euros.
It says that the estimate is extremely conservative as it only evaluates the financial outlay of the company in respect of roads, drainage, pavements and electrics, all of which were installed in 2007 before the plan was put on hold.
There is no quantification of the loss of earnings that will need to be added, and that the company would certainly demand, for losing the opportunity to develop the coastal plot with capacity for some 1,500 homes.
Loss of profits could then increase the amount to be repaid from the public purse to well above one hundred million euros.
The estimate of 30 million euro is part of a report requested by the Environmental Committee of the Cortes (the Congress of Deputies and the Senate).
However the report signed by the deputy director of Territory and Landscape, Vicente Domenech, does propose two alternatives. One would be an agreement between the developer and the City Council to transfer its use (urban development) to other areas in the municipality, maintaining the economic equilibrium of the operation.
The other raises the possibility of setting back the building to the area of the N-332, distancing it from the coast itself allowing much more of the coastal landscape to be retained.
While any decision is unlikely to entirely satisfy the wishes of either party what the residents of the coast do find particularly disappointing is the continued apathy and lack of any engagement by the Orihuela government, made up of the Popular Party and Ciudadanos coalition, which, in all the time that the matter has been a significant environmental concern to many thousands of people has not lifted a single finger to safeguard or to defend Orihuela Costa’s situation or to protect the interests of its coastal residents.
