CUMBRE DEL SOL URBAN DEVELOPMENT FROM 1970
The urban development of Cumbre del Sol began on the slopes of Mount Puig Llorença in the seventies. Nowadays it has become one of the most exclusive residential areas on the Costa Blanca.
This is the history of the urban development from 1970 to the present day:
1. El Poble Nou de Benitatxell Foundation (*)
The first inhabitants of Benitatxell began to settle in the municipality in the middle of the 17th century. In January 1698, the Duke of Medinaceli and the Marquis of Denia gave the residents the Charter of Settlement and the municipality was constituted as a council.
Among the rights granted to the municipality by the Duke was the Puig Llorença mountain, which will be used for pasture, grazing, firewood collection and other communal purposes of the municipality.
After the beginning of the disentailments of Madoz (1855-1856) where the communal property passed into the hands of the State, the Puig Llorença mountain was initially bought in 1869 by Vicence Llobell Ballester who, a year later, in 1870 sold it to 22 residents of Benitatxell who grouped together to protect and maintain this mountain for the benefit of the municipality. These neighbours formed in 1882 a governing board known as "La Junta de la Muntanya i Forn de la Roqueta". The mountain, according to the deeds signed before a notary on 26 January 1882, was intended to remain in the hands of the Junta for a period of 90 years until 1972.
The management of this board, which was renewed by inheritance, consisted mainly of renting the pastures and collecting a series of fees for forest use, which were subsequently invested in the payment of the contribution of the mountain, in charitable works and in the preparation of the festive events of the municipality.
In addition to the use of the mountain for grazing, the farmers of Benitatxell terraced a large part of the Puig esplanade and other parts of the area, mainly carob trees, to feed the animals. In addition, through the Puig area, the farmers used to access the cliff area where the Pesqueras were located, where fishing took place between the months of January and March.
Chronology of the urban developments of Cumbre del Sol from 1970 till 2025 :
- In 1965, the governing board, faced with an economic crisis for several years, decided to donate the mountain Puig Llorença to the Town Hall by means of a free transfer signed by the co-owners.
- In 1970, the Town Hall sold the mountain Puig Llorença to VAPF which acquired the first sector of 114 hectares for the equivalent of 300,000€ in order to convert a piece of land with almost no economic profitability into a tourist area and, with the profits obtained, to provide the municipality with drinking water, sewage and infrastructure works and community equipment.
- In 1973, the Puig Llorença was privatised when VAPF acquired the other sector put up for auction from the communal mountain and some private plots within it and the cliff was dynamited to open up a road and build the Cala del Moraig. See related post Cala Moraig: from an unspoilt coastline to a mass spot
- Partial Development Plan
The Partial Development Plan was approved in 1975, under the name ‘Cumbre del Sol’, with the aim of creating several tourist-residential nuclei on the mountain. For this purpose, the total area was subdivided into two sectors of different sizes (367 and 738 hectares) and each sector was further divided into six units. The area for which the sub-development plan has been prepared includes only six of the existing units, namely the first three in each sector, while the remaining three units in each sector were still awaiting the preparation of a second sub-development plan that would take place in the future.
The 1975 Partial Development Plan established a classification of the land according to slope, panoramic view and orientation:
- Steeply sloping areas are left clear
- Those with a slope between 35 and 60% are used for grouped single-family dwellings, in order to easily obtain views over the sea.
- Those with a slope of less than 35% are intended for the construction of detached single-family dwellings.
- The bottom of watercourses and other land without sea views should be reserved for green areas for collective use, although this principle has been transgressed in practice in more than one case.
- The negative environmental effects have not been taken into consideration by the Town Hall due to the large number of socio-economic advantages derived from the urbanisation of the mountain, which have allowed the municipality to develop elsewhere a series of infrastructure improvements and which have promoted activities linked to the secondary and tertiary sectors.
- On 4th and 5th July 1987, a large environmental demonstrations (Barricadas contra los ecologistas en 1987 and 'Broncas del sol' en el urbanismo de Benitatxell) were held in the region against the urbanisation of El Puig Llorença.
- Special Protection Plan: In view of the evidence and the seriousness of the environmental effects, the Alicante Provincial Urban Planning Commission, on the occasion of the approval of the Municipality's Subsidiary Standards in 1987, ordered the drafting of a Special Protection Plan for the area delimited by the ‘Cumbre del Sol’ Partial Development Plan, and also suspended the granting of building permits until the affected land was covered by this Ordinance.
- Both the Town Hall and VAPF lodged appeals against the Provincial Commission's ruling with the Department of Public Works, Town Planning and Transport of the Generalitat Valenciana. The conflict of interests which arose over the urbanisation finally made it necessary to sign an urban development agreement between the two parties, in order to reconcile the maintenance and protection of the natural areas with the expectations of the developer and the prospects of wealth and employment generated in the municipality by the construction of the tourist-residential complex.
- Urban development agreement between the Town Council and VAPF: The Urban Development Agreement adopted in January 1988 pursued as a priority objective the protection and defence of the landscape and ecological values of Puig Llorença. The aim was to guarantee a future sustainable urban development, which is fundamental for the maintenance of the socio-economic development of the municipality of Benitatxell. To this end VAPF undertook to sacrifice the most spectacular enclaves of the development, such as the cliff areas and the summit of the mountain, to create a 2.854.000 m2 green belt for impact protection.
- Land swap between the Town Hall and VAPF: This involved the exchange of a series of plots of land between VAPF and the Town Hall. The development company VAPF was to exchange 400.710 m2 of land classified as grouped and single-family housing area, maritime village area and hotel area, for land of the same size, owned by the Town Hall, classified as protected undeveloped land, which would be reclassified and converted into land for development. Consequently, the Agreement required the specific modification of the Subsidiary Planning Regulations and the ‘Cumbre del Sol’ Partial Development Plan, so that the land that passed into the ownership of VAPF would be classified as land for development, while the land that passed into the ownership of the Town Council would be classified as land for special protection and not for development.
- In 1989, the Puig de la Llorença special protection plan was implemented, developing the urban redevelopment project for the ‘Cumbre del Sol’, in accordance with the provisions of the aforementioned Urban Development Agreement, and modifying some of the fundamental points of the Partial Development Plan approved in 1975.
- The 1989 urban planning foresaw the construction of 4.975 dwellings for a theoretical estimated population of 19.900 inhabitants. This figure contrasts sharply with the population of the municipality, which in 1986 stood at 1.609 inhabitants. Today, according to the National Statistics Institute (INE) the population of Cumbre del Sol in 2023 was 1.482 inhabitants (30% of the Municipality, which amounts to 4.858 inhabitants).
- The urban development agreement adopted in 1988, coinciding with the passing of the Coastal Law (Law 22/1988 of 28 July 1988 protected the beaches and cliffs that formed part of the SCI (Site of Community Importance)), was not respected either by the Town Council or by VAPF, which has continued to build in the ‘sacrificed’ areas.(*)
- In 2005, the specific modification of the Subsidiary Standards was approved in the area of the Cumbre del Sol Partial Plan, which once again occupies sensitive areas and raises the idea of a marina in Moraig.(*)
- In 2016, the Directorate General of Coasts agreed to reduce the protection easement of 3,250 metres of coastline from 100 to 20 metres at the request of the Town Council, given that there were already many square metres of urbanised land and demolitions were avoided. Despite the fact that there is still an easement protecting more than 3,250 square metres of coastline, building has continued on the line of the cliffs (protected as SCI and of special geological and biological interest within the Natura 2000 network).It is therefore a great ecological attack on the natural heritage of Benitatxell.(*)
2.
- 1978 - Adelfas
- 1978 - Encinas
- 1979 - Begonias
- 1982 - Camelias
- 1983 - Girasoles
- 1988 - Dalias
- 1991 - Olivos
- 1993 - Kalmias
- 2002 - Fresnos
- 2002 - Liros
- 2004 - Magnolias
- 2014 - Palmeras
- 2021 - Jazmines
- 1982 - Pueblo
de la Luz
- 1993 - Pueblo Atenea
- 1995 - Pueblo
Panorama 1
- 1998 - Pueblo
del Mar
- 2000 - Pueblo
Panorama 2
- 2004 - Pueblo
de la Paz
- 2005 - Pueblo
Panorama 3
- 2006 - Pueblo
Panorama 4
- 2005 - Pueblo
Montecala
- 2016 - Pueblo Atalaya
- 2016 - Novamar Suites
- 2018 - Blue Infinity
Aerial view of Cumbre del Sol (2023):
3. Future urban developments
The Jazmines area on the top of Puig Llorença is expected to be urbanised in the next few years.
The Lirios area, where the abandoned shopping centre is located, has been reclassified as a hotel zone.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.
- CANO, J, & GRAU, E. (2014): El Poble Nou de Benitatxell. 1600 - 1923, Ed. Bullent
- CANO, J. (2015): El Poble Nou de Benitatxell. 1925 - 1975, Ed. Bullent
- ALMENARA, M, & GUINOT, E.
(2008): Carta de poblament del Poble Nou de
Benitatxell, Ed. butllent.
- VVAA, (2013): Quatre dècades de conflictes territorials i mobilitzacions ciutadanes a la Marina Alta, Aguaits Magazine, pp. 17-26.
- MONTIEL, C. (1990): Desarrollo turístico, promoción inmobiliaria y degradación en el municipio de Benitachell (Comarca de la Marina), Instituto Interuniversitario de Geografia, pp. 113-129.
- (*) Contributions provided by Víctor Bisquert Ferrer, Professor of History and Councillor for Tourism in El Poble Nou de Benitatxell.
- (**) Year of construction obtained from land registry data. The figures may not be accurate if the lower street numbers in each area were not the first to be built as we have assumed. However, the differences should not be significant. Jazmines is currently (2025) under construction.
- (***) According to VAPF, this plan contains some errors and a graphic update is being carried out, which is expected to be completed by the end of 2025.
La decisión de urbanizar Cumbre del Sol aprovechando el boom del turismo extranjero fundamentalmente de clientes europeos de mayor poder adquisitivo que los españoles ha tenido como consecuencia colateral que 50 años después:
ReplyDelete1. el 70% de la población residente sea de origen extranjero, la mayoría de la cual no habla castellano ni se integre en la vida municipal.
2. los precios de compra se hayan incrementado exponencialmente haciéndolos prohibitivos para la población local del municipio y para los españoles en general y no haya suficiente oferta de vivienda de alquiler a largo plazo.
3. la política de construir viviendas de lujo haya incrementado de tal manera la valoración catastral de los inmuebles y del terreno de forma que se ha procedido a realizar una revisión catastral que multiplicará el coste del IBI y de la plusvalía municipal de una forma exponencial durante los próximos 10 años.
4. la construcción de un número muy elevado de piscinas privadas y la sobrepoblación estival nos lleve a crecientes amenazas de restricciones de agua.
I'm really impressed by the amount of work put into this article! Having been around Cumbre del Sol for so many years, I found this read not only fascinating but also revealing—answering many of the questions I had. Thank you so much Pepe and the OVFC Team for your dedication and effort. Fantastic job—please keep sharing more of these insights, they’re truly valuable!
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