Costa del Sol commercial and hotel project halted due to insufficient traffic and environmental studies

After years of bureaucratic procedures, the planned development of the La Cizaña land, on the coastal border between Malaga and Torremolinos, remains stalled for violating several regulations.

In November 2024, Malaga city council approved the preliminary plans for hotels, offices and shops in a particularly constrained site due to its proximity to the sea and the Guadalmar motorway.

The fact that the MA-20 motorway bisects the area has led to a binding report from the Ministry of Transport's department, which is currently blocking the development.

Firstly, the planned uses will cause traffic disruptions requiring a thorough capacity study. Access to La Cizaña will be via the motorway interchange with Plaza Mayor, which the ministry considers "potentially impacting the safety and service conditions" of state roads.

The ministry considers the traffic analysis the developer, Milestone Real Estate, has submitted inadequate and not thorough enough. The report also raises concerns about the footprint of the plots where the commercial and business buildings could be constructed, because they "partially" encroach upon the motorway's right-of-way.

Following an environmental report by the regional government that detected a threatened toad species and an endangered plant in this area, the developers had to change the initially planned layout to free up green areas in the part closest to the beach and relocate the shops and offices to the north of the motorway.

Furthermore, the ministry has denounced the lack of the necessary measures to protect users of future buildings from traffic noise on the MA-20. According to the reports, "the acoustic quality objectives" established in current legislation are exceeded.

The government has requested a new acoustic study, as well as a traffic and capacity study "tailored to the specific design of the connections", with a 20-year timeframe.

The roads department points out that, for this analysis, only existing road infrastructure can be considered, not planned or yet-to-be-built infrastructure. It also notes that the impact on traffic in the area of the new commercial expansions of Plaza Mayor, which is also currently stalled due to negative traffic reports, must be taken into account.

Furthermore, the directorate general for the coast and the sea, under the Ministry for Ecological Transition, has also raised concerns about this project and requested that several issues be addressed, including the provision of more detailed documentation regarding the height and volume of the future buildings to analyse whether they create an architectural barrier effect.

In the case of the plot designated for hotel use, with an area of 39,598 square metres, a height of two stories is permitted. However, for commercial uses, north of the motorway, buildings may reach up to four stories (ground floor plus three in the case of offices).

The coasts department warns that the current temporary car park for vehicles that usually park next to the beach at this point occupies the area of public maritime-terrestrial domain. It has demanded that it be "removed and transferred to the urban development area".

The planned development envisions preserving the existing homes in La Cizaña, alongside which a new 5,315-square-metre surface car park would be created for beachgoers. It also includes the redevelopment and improvement of the road along the Camino de la Cizaña.

The development of this project depends on its promoters overcoming all these objections.

Deputy spokesperson for Con Málaga Toni Morillas said that "urban development should have been accompanied by investments in transport funded by those who financially benefit from these developments".

"In this project, business has taken precedence from the beginning, despite warnings about its environmental impact and the evidence that it would further exacerbate traffic congestion in the area, as the ministry's technicians have now clearly stated in their reports," she added.

"There is a structural traffic problem in the area that has been worsening for years while the city council continues to fail to offer effective solutions to the endless jams, saturated access points and a municipal road network that has clearly been overwhelmed by urban and commercial growth in the sector and its surroundings," Morillas said.