Mallorca: 831-home Son Busquets plan stays stalled

Palma’s plan for 831 homes on the former Son Busquets barracks site remains stuck after 25 years without a solution, Mayor Jaime Martínez says. The PP’s Elías Bendodo visited the site in Palma on Thursday and called on Spain’s central government to unblock it quickly. The 100,000-square-metre plot sits in the heart of the city, according to the mayor.

Martínez says Palma City Council has pushed hard for the development for three years. The council proposed treating it as a strategic residential project, a planning route for housing schemes, but says the central government did not accept it.

The row is not only about whether homes are built. Martínez says the ministry’s plan would add another 600 homes to the site while failing to provide facilities needed for education, healthcare and social services in the area. He has urged the government to consider objections submitted by the council and neighbouring districts.

Bendodo said the visit showed the national PP’s support for Palma’s demands. He said the party backed a sustainable neighbourhood plan that took account of ideas raised by local people.

The PP politician also backed Balearic president Marga Prohens in opposing limits on non-residents buying second homes. The European Commission had raised the measure as a possible way to regulate the housing market.

Bendodo said the PP would repeal Spain’s housing law if it forms the national government. He also promised land-liberalisation measures which, he said, could allow nearly one million homes to be built across Spain through public-private cooperation.

Topics: Housing · Social affairs · Tourism · Politics · Palma

Source: Europa Press / Mallorca.com