Malaga city council resumes largest urban development in coming years with 2,847 new homes

After years of legal disputes, what will be Malaga's largest urban development in the coming years is moving towards its first construction projects, which could begin this year.

The project, known as Rojas Santa Tecla, concerns a group of plots of land north of the Benítez area and west of the Churriana district road, covering a total of 1,488,269 square metres. The plan includes the construction of 2,847 homes, aligned with new roads that will traverse the land bordered by the villages of Monsálvez, El Olivar and Cortijo de Maza. They will be built around a 450,000-square-metre golf course with a minimum of 18 holes.

Although this ambitious residential development has been progressing towards completion in recent years, its developers have encountered difficulties in registering the land division due to objections the registry has raised over the past two years.

To overcome these objections, in July of last year, they requested approval from the municipal planning department for a supplementary legal transaction, which this unit of the city council expects to approve at its meeting meeting onThursday.

The file resolves all the issues and objections, allowing the registration of the land division with all the required corrections, including an update to the cadastral map regarding the borders between the municipalities of Malaga and Torremolinos.

Once approved by the urban planning department this week, the project will complete registration, which will open the road to the start of the land development work.

According to sources, the intention is to begin contracting these works as soon as possible, so that they can start this year. The land development project, prepared by CAI and Narval, costs 53.9 million euros (including the golf course) and has an estimated execution period of 28 months.

According to the urban development plan the city council approved in March 2017, in addition to housing, this project also includes two plots for commercial use (one on the border with Torremolinos, across the motorway, and the other north of the former Campamento Benítez) totalling 30,115 square metres; a golf club on a 3,000-square-metre plot; sports facilities covering 22,784 square metres; social facilities (24,207 square metres); and school facilities (45,690 square metres).

Furthermore, green spaces reserve 330,353 square metres and roads - 244,172 square metres. The plan also includes 2,763 surface parking spaces, 70 of which for people with reduced mobility.

In the Rojas Santa Tecla project, the Fierro-Van Dulken family, heirs of Juan Jiménez hold more than half of the development rights. Land Co (the Banco Santander land development company) holds 12 per cent and plans to build 335 homes. Málaga Oeste, headed by entrepreneur Francisca Sánchez Ordóñez, holds another 12 per cent. There are also several owners with smaller shares.