marbella
The authorities agree to finish work that should have been done by builders
08.07.09 - 11:14 -
Roadworks under way on the Los Monteros development.
New road signs for residential developments
There are approximately 800 residential developments in the municipality of Marbella, and not all of them are luxurious. Many are old and in need of new roads, footpaths, drainage systems, telephone lines and other basic services, and some of them are newer developments that have been left without full services by builders who have either gone out of business or failed to provide these services. Most of the new developments without full services were built during the GIL administration in Marbella, when many speculators were allowed to build quickly and move on without finishing basic infrastructure work.
But the Town Hall stepped in at the beginning of last year with an agreement by which it draws up the work project plans and pays the cost of the necessary licences, thereby saving each residential development approximately five per cent of the total project cost. Some seventy developments have signed up so far, and many more are in the process of doing so.
“We get more and more all the time,” says the director of the Residential Developments Department in the Marbella Town Hall, Javier García, adding that while most demand has been for repairing roads and footpaths, many communities of owners are also having more ambitious projects done, such as building dumps, roundabouts and parks. “In most cases these are residential developments built many decades ago, but in many cases we are dealing with new developments left unfinished by the builders,” he says. The reason for this, he tells us, is that builders were not then required to pay a deposit guaranteeing that all work undertaken by them would actually be finished.
Beneficiaries
Among those benefiting from the scheme are luxury developments such as Marbesa, Los Monteros, Caribe Playa, Guadalmina Alta and La Carolina, along with many in poorer areas of the municipality. The process is that they first apply for aid with an agreement signed by the community of owners, by which they undertake to carry out the work in accordance with the project specifications and pay all building costs.
Once the project has been approved by the Local Goverrnment Board, the Town Hall takes care of the rest of the paperwork. The project is drawn up, usually inside three months, by the Town Hall urban planning department, and as soon as the licence has been granted, the owners have six months to complete the work.
