The new Yaiza General Supplementary Plan not only intends to legalize the homes that are already built in the Playa Blanca Partial Plan, but also to allow the area to continue developing, despite the fact that the courts stopped its progress and declared it extinct. In addition, it also contemplates the construction of a 539-bed hotel, which was not even planned in its day.
And all this, according to the General Plan itself, to "address the anomalous and detrimental situation of the home buyers, who are considered to be mostly bona fide third parties." This refers to the individuals who bought some of the houses that were built in their day, and who were not warned of the situation in which that Partial Plan was, which was later annulled by the Justice.
Since then, and while some buyers took the developers to court, even with criminal complaints for fraud, the Yaiza City Council and the Cabildo also held meetings with those affected. They had even stated that the new General Plan could provide a solution for those homes. However, the document has gone much further, "resurrecting" the Partial Plan as a whole and also authorizing tourist use on one of the plots, specifically H2.
In this regard, the Plan states that "due to its position and characteristics", that plot is "clearly suitable for this use". Furthermore, according to the document, the hotel could have a height of 11 meters on three floors, compared to the average of 6.80 meters and two floors in the rest of the area.
New homes
Regarding residential use, the General Plan states that "804 homes" were built in the area before the courts ordered the cessation of its development. Now, it intends to provide legal coverage to those houses (many of which are not even finished), and authorize the construction of as many more.
Regarding the different uses that the area will have, the Yaiza General Plan is based on the figures of the Playa Blanca Partial Plan, which does not legally exist (since it was annulled) and which became extinct in 2001 with the entry into force of the Urgent Measures Law of the Government of the Canary Islands, to calculate what each one will increase or decrease.
Thus, it states that the area that will be destined for public land "increases", going from 614,428 square meters to 640,157, and that residential use is reduced, losing almost 70,000 square meters. However, most of those meters are now for tourist use, with the plot of more than 40,000 meters that will be used for the hotel.
"A large recreational facility"
In addition, the drafting team of the General Plan points out that "another of the specific objectives" in the development of this partial plan is "to achieve a large recreational facility that requalifies the tourist area as a whole". This facility, they add, will have the character of a "general system" and "will be obtained by free transfer". In total, they intend to allocate more than 200,000 square meters for that "large recreational facility plot".
In order to carry out this new ordering of the area, according to the document, "a new private management instrument adapted to the new ordering determinations established" must be drafted, as well as an "Urbanization Project".
The president of the Governing Board of the Urban Conservation Entity of the Playa Blanca Partial Plan, Ignacio González, presented a proposal for an agreement during the processing of the General Plan, which had not been reported until now, and to which Ignacio Díaz de Aguilar later added another document. That agreement is one of the six that have been included in the new Yaiza General Plan, which has just been opened for public exhibition after its initial approval.