Carboneras (Almería) publishes the modification that declares El Algarrobico unbuildable

Almería, Sep 22 (EFE).- The Official Gazette of the Province (BOP) of Almería published this Monday the modification of the General Urban Planning Plan (PGOU) of Carboneras, which reclassifies the sectors in which the El Algarrobico site is located as non-urbanizable land, in compliance with the final ruling issued by the TSJA (High Court of Justice) and confirmed in 2018 by the Supreme Court.

The announcement, signed by Mayor Salvador Hernández (Cs), recalls that the city council's plenary session approved on July 31 the partial modification of the General Urban Development Plan (PGOU) called "Partial Adaptation of the Revision of Subsidiary Regulations to the LOUA in compliance with court ruling 634/2018."

The text indicates that the amendment was registered in the Andalusian Regional Registry of Urban Planning Instruments on September 15th, corresponding to the updated version of March 2025 with corrections to typographical errors. The document has also been deposited in the Municipal Planning Registry.

The announcement in the Official Gazette of the Municipality of Buenos Aires (BOP) includes links to the municipal electronic site for accessing the certificate of the plenary agreement, the report, the completed plans, and the actual registration annotation.

Executes the 2016 sentence

This publication formally completes one of the procedures requested by the TSJA (High Court of Justice) to enforce the 2016 ruling, which annulled the urban planning classification of sectors ST-1 (El Algarrobico) and ST-2 (El Canillar) as developable land, ordering their inclusion in municipal planning as non-developable land requiring special protection.

The urban reclassification affects the El Algarrobico beach area, where the Azata del Sol hotel is located, and the adjacent El Canillar area. The former has been categorized as C1 protected non-developable land, while the latter has been classified as B1 and B2.

The publication in the Official Gazette of Granada (BOP) comes after the Granada Administrative Litigation Chamber warned the mayor of Carboneras of the possibility of imposing repeated coercive fines and even of referring the matter to the Prosecutor's Office if he continued to fail to comply with the ruling. The court had found that, despite the requests of March and May 2025, the corrected regulations had not been filed and published on time.

The City Council has maintained that the plenary approval, registration, and official publication comply with the court order, although it has emphasized the need for the Government, Regional Government, and City Council to seek a consensual solution that will end the conflict over the hotel after two decades of litigation.

Environmental organizations celebrate it

Environmental organizations that have been litigating against the urban classification of El Algarrobico have welcomed the publication.

Lawyer José Ignacio Domínguez, counsel for Greenpeace and Ecologists in Action, recalled in statements sent to EFE that since 2009 these organizations have been demanding that the City Council amend the General Urban Development Plan (PGOU) to reflect the protections established in 1994 by the Natural Resources Management Plan for the Cabo de Gata-Níjar Natural Park.

"We've been trying to get the City Council to comply with the regulations for 16 years, and finally, today, the amendment has been published in the bulletin," he said.

Domínguez stated that it was "a day to be happy," although he regretted that the process had taken so long: "It should have been classified as protected land back in 1994, but the City Council ignored it and even used a manipulated plan in which El Algarrobico appeared as suitable for development."

According to the lawyer, based on this erroneous document, the site was classified as urban land, which allowed for the construction of the hotel promoted by Azata del Sol to be approved.