ARCHIVED - High-rise construction projects at odds with the ban on new developments around the Mar Menor

Various projects threaten to test the resolve of the Murcia government in halting construction activity

After the regional government announced last week that all construction projects along the coastline of the Mar Menor are to be halted there has been great concern expressed over a couple of projects which appear to flatly contradict the notion that this ban is likely to be implemented.

One of these is the large apartment block which is already under construction next to Playa Honda and Playa Paraíso, at the western edge of the abandoned salt flats of Marchamalo (part of which, it was announced earlier this week, has been purchased by the naturalists’ association ANSE). This construction project has progressed slowly but estate agents are still offering properties for sale in the development, and certainly the existence of such a large block so close to the shore of the Mar Menor is a very visual illustration of how little control has been exerted over building around the lagoon in the past.

Another issue drawn to the attention of the public by regional newspaper La Verdad concerns an area of land at the southern end of La Manga, on the other side of the Marchamalo salt pans next to the Playa del Vivero. This is a surprisingly wild beach in the context of the massive development which has occurred around it over the last 50 years.

This is explained by the nature of the land here: in fact, 300,000 square metres were “reclaimed” from the Mar Menor in 1969 by Tomás Maestre, the man responsible for the massive development of La Manga during the final years of Franco’s dictatorship, in an area previously occupied by a fish farming concern, with the aim of eventually building on it. Now, according to La Verdad, Portmán Golf SL and Herjospha SA are attempting to revive plans to build 634 homes and tourist apartments and a hotel in a series of front-line blocks in the “Plan Parcial El Vivero”, having received authorization from the Town Hall of Cartagena to move forward with the necessary planning applications during the summer.

Perhaps ironically, this information was made public in the official bulletin of the Region of Murcia on Wednesday 30^th October, the same day that 55,000 people marched in the streets of Cartagena to demand solutions for the continuing deterioration in the marine environment of the Mar Menor.

In addition, La Verdad also reports that the local Land Use laws in Cartagena provide for the construction of around 1,000 apartments and a hotel in the La Loma de Mar area of Mar de Cristal. This is on the part of the coastline of the Mar Menor between Mar de Cristal and Camping Caravaning where the land rises, making it attractive on account of the enhanced views, and a court ruling 30 years ago barred developers from building to within 20 metres of the shore but upheld the limit of 100 metres from the sea.

Images: @NuestroMarMenor, Google Maps

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