The Lanzarote Cabildo has definitively approved the scope document of the Island Land Planning Plan (PIOT), a decisive step within the Strategic Environmental Assessment procedure that allows for the continuation of the drafting of the new island planning, the first to update the territorial model of Lanzarote, La Graciosa and the Chinijo Archipelago since the approval of the current plan in 1991The president of the Cabildo of Lanzarote, Oswaldo Betancort, pointed out that the definitive approval of the scope document consolidates real progress in updating the island's planning, after more than three decades without a comprehensive review of the PIOT. "Lanzarote cannot continue to be organized with a 1991 plan, alien to the current territorial, social, and economic reality, so this step allows us to move forward with legal certainty, planning, and a vision for the future," he notedBetancort explained that this agreement marks the start of the structural phase of the new Island Plan, by establishing the environmental, territorial, and methodological bases on which the complete document will be drafted, which will define the island's territorial model for the coming decades, ordering growth, protecting the territory, and planning strategic infrastructures
For his part, the Minister of Territorial Policy, Jesús Machín, detailed that the scope document establishes what the PIOT must analyze from an environmental and territorial point of view, including land use planning, the location of infrastructure, the protection of natural resources, the landscape, and the effects of the plan on the territory. In this regard, he indicated that this phase "allows for the evaluation of possible impacts from the outset and ensures that the new planning is drafted in accordance with solid technical, environmental, and legal criteria".
Machín added that the definitive approval of the document "enables the formal continuation of the PIOT drafting procedure, providing legal certainty to the process and reducing future risks, by defining the mandatory technical and environmental framework that will guide the plan". Likewise, he recalled that the new PIOT will incorporate the current territorial reality, the current regulatory framework and the structural needs of the island, addressing land management, the planning of strategic infrastructures and the protection of natural resourcesThe new PIOT will replace the plan in force since 1991 and will incorporate the current territorial reality, the current regulatory framework, and the structural needs of Lanzarote and La Graciosa, establishing land management, infrastructure planning, and natural resource protection for the coming decadesAfter the approval of the scope document, the procedure will continue with the drafting of the PIOT progress document, which will be submitted for public information and participation of administrations and involved sectors before initial approval. This process will allow for the consolidation of a fully evaluated island plan, with a solid technical and legal basis, which will define the territorial planning of Lanzarote and La Graciosa for the coming decades
