Construction project for 1 350 apartments in Benimaclet (Valencia)

7.12.2018

Question for written answer E-006166-18
to the Commission
Rule 130
Marina Albiol Guzmán (GUE/NGL)

A company is preparing an urban development plan for the Benimaclet district of Valencia, consisting of 1 350 new apartments and tower blocks up to 30 storeys high.

The area in question is currently reserved for urban gardens and vegetation and is considered a transition zone between the city and traditional Valencian farms and gardens (the landscape is protected under the European Environment Agency’s Dobris Assessment).

In approving the project, the Department of Urban Planning ignored requests put forward at a public consultation to declare the site unsuitable for development. The Department also dismissed a neighbourhood petition to reverse the 1992 decision classifying the land as suitable for urbanisation.

Despite settled case-law on the declassification of land that has not been developed decades after the original application was made, the Department of Urban Planning refused to carry out an assessment on the environmental impact of the plan.

1. Does the Commission believe that the project runs contrary to the conclusions of the Auken Report adopted by Parliament in 2009?

2. Does the Commission believe that the Department is in breach of the Aarhus Convention as it ignored the provisions on environmental information and public participation?