The town hall wants a park and no development.

The town hall wants a park and no development. | Teresa Ayuga

Majorca Daily Bulletin reporterPalma07/06/2018 00:00
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Palma town hall's governing board is to comply with a 2017 ruling of the Balearic High Court and will make three plots on the sea front available to the electricity company Endesa. These are the land occupied by the Gesa building and two plots next to it which are currently just grassed. The town hall will also hand back the keys to the Gesa building. If the company doesn't take them, they will, says José Hila, "be deposited with the court".

The deputy mayor for urban planning explains that the town hall is responding to a ruling that annulled the subdivision of land that was approved in 2009 and that reinstated a plan from 2003. As part of this, the town hall will receive some plots set back from the front line which had been given to Endesa by way of compensation for the loss of the three that have now been returned.

Hila highlights the fact that at the end of last year the town hall suspended the issuing of building licences in the area. Returning the plots to Endesa does not, he adds, "signify that the company can go ahead and build on them". The town hall's number one priority is its seafront park and not what had been envisaged in the 2003 plan - "a line of luxury properties that would separate the city from the sea". Where Hila and the town hall are concerned, an amendment to the plan needs to ensure that there will be a park.

As for the Gesa building, Hila says that the town hall is unsure whether it will have to return the whole or part of it to Endesa. This will be something for the "technical people" to figure out. Whatever the outcome, it will no longer all be public property.

The town hall hopes to have arrived at a definitive agreement with Endesa by the end of the year and that this agreement will include the park.