The Urban Planning Department of the Alicante City Council has extended the deadline for the public consultation process for the urban planning project for the La Sangueta neighborhood, within Comprehensive Operation 6 (OI/6) of the General Urban Planning Plan.
As explained yesterday by the councilor for Urban Planning, Rocío Gómez, it is about “promoting citizen participation in this project that is so relevant for the municipality.”
The processing procedure for the urbanization project of La Sangueta, a black spot on the Alicante coast, located between the tourist beach of Postiguet and La Cantera, was reactivated a year ago with the contracting of a study for the preparation, analysis, diagnosis and proposals for intervention in this neighborhood by the University of Alicante. At the end of 2023, the citizen consultation process was opened for 20 days. Now the deadline is extended until February 15.
It might be thought that the contributions received have not been sufficiently interesting, although Urban Planning states that "citizens' interest in participating has been perceived once the deadline has expired." After decades of abandonment, in which there have been a succession of frustrated projects, such as the gold-plated Congress Palace that Mayor Lusi Díaz Alperi - and his successor, Sonia Castedo - presented with great fanfare in 2008, it does not seem like a big deal to give one more month to those neighbors and citizens who have ideas to contribute.
So that residents can present their proposals, a document has been prepared by the Planning Service technicians, which can be accessed on the municipal website, in which the problems that are intended to be solved with the urbanization of La Sangueta are presented. . And an indicative survey is included for citizens to express their opinion on the most relevant aspects provided for in the planning project.
This document explains that the City Council intends to carry out the processing of this Comprehensive Operation of the PGOU, whose fundamental objective is the study and restructuring of access to the city of the Narrow Gauge Railway (current TRAM); the replacement of the current overpass with a public space that allows the integration of the affected areas, these being the existing homes, the Generalitat Valenciana Railways facilities, the Denia and Villajoyosa avenues and the Raval Roig neighborhood.
The organization of the area is sought, creating new residential uses that coexist and allow the existing residential uses to be maintained, that is, without harming the interests of the neighbors who live in the neighborhood. The planning proposal will be made through the drafting of a planning instrument, preferably a Special Plan, which is based on a detailed study of the urban, territorial and landscape aspects.
The logic and suggestions of the technicians who have worked on the issue invite us to give priority in the future of this area to the pedestrian and cycling connection between the recently renovated Explanada, bordering the Postiguet beach, to linking the area to be regenerated with the green route that is being executed on the old Tram tracks, between La Cantera and the sea.
Since that 2008 design, in which 6 skyscrapers and 400 floors were to accompany the iconic Congress Palace, whose design was commissioned by architect Salvador Pérez Arroyo, who compared it to the Sydney Opera House, things have changed radically. Not only because the Conference Center has been assigned another location, also on port land - something that was essential for that project to be frustrated - but because citizen sensitivity seems more inclined to prioritize, for example, the creation of a large green area that offer respite to neighborhoods where they are scarce.
The plan also aims for there to be public spaces attractive to citizens, always considering the strategic location from the visual point of view that La Sangueta has: from where you can see - and are seen - the Castle of Santa Bárbara, the Serra Grossa and the entire seafront located north of the Postiguet urban beach. During the electoral campaign, the PSPV proposed, for example, installing a center for practicing water sports in the area. Whatever it may be, the residents would appreciate the regeneration of the neighborhood being undertaken without delay.
