Infrastructure
Malaga expropriates land for Gibralfaro development plan, which has been on hold for ten years
The urban planning department has approved two applications to purchase plots of land in order to carry out the project to provide access to the hillside from Calle Victoria
Málaga
The plan to open Monte Gibralfaro to Malaga city and its residents has suffered ten years of delays. In recent years, the city council has ... taken several steps towards implementing some of the phases into which this unique green initiative was divided. However, no work has yet begun and European funds that could have been spent on the environmental regeneration of the hill have been left unused.
Nonetheless, the city council continues to include this plan in its roadmap for a new tranche of funding from Brussels. To do so, it needs to acquire certain plots of land that it has not yet expropriated.
This is the case with two plots of land, the acquisition of which is set to be approved and finalised at the municipal urban planning committee meeting this Thursday.
Both expropriations will serve to develop the project known as the 'Bypass Gibralfaro', which aims to create a footpath and recreational areas at the rear of Calle Victoria, linking Pinosol with Calle Agua and Calle Picacho. The project costs over three million euros and has been included in the European Edil programme, meaning it will be eligible for further European funding, provided the council is able to complete it by 2029.
The expropriated plots are behind Calle Victoria and their expropriation happens through a procedure based on mutual agreement with the owners, which includes the corresponding compensation for the settlement.
One of the plots is on Calle Picacho 10 and covers a total expropriated area of 75.40 square metres. The other is at number 12 of the same street and covers a total area of 142.88 square metres.
Regarding the cost to the municipal coffers, the urban planning department will have to pay 208,103 euros to acquire the plots. This includes the municipal valuation, plus a five per cent premium for local circumstances and an additional ten per cent discount from the agreement with the owners.
Alongside this phase of the plan, another project yet to be developed (which the local government also intends to finance with European funds) is a similar scheme worth 2.4 million to link Mundo Nuevo and Pinosol, which includes footbridges and river crossing structures, work to integrate archaeological activities in the area, the creation of a children's play area and the construction of a rawda garden, modelled on an Arab funerary garden.
Another project, with a budget of 1.3 million euros and a completion period of eight months once the contract has been awarded, will develop on the southern slope of the hill with the aim of stabilising the ground, preventing landslides caused by erosion. It also includes the construction of a footpath to link the La Coracha promenade with the Gibralfaro path.
Finally, a fourth phase of the projects will improve the land's drainage and install an irrigation network, an electricity supply and drinking water points, all worth around 2.1 million euros. In total, the measures required to bring this major green project to fruition amount to some eight million euros, which, a decade on, have still not been implemented.
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