Controversy over a development of 400 homes on an old golf course

New urban planning controversy in Sant Vicenç de Montalt (Maresme) due to the attempted urban project promoted by golf promoters that closed in December.

Oliver Thansan
Oliver Thansan
04 April 2023 Tuesday 08:59
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Controversy over a development of 400 homes on an old golf course

New urban planning controversy in Sant Vicenç de Montalt (Maresme) due to the attempted urban project promoted by golf promoters that closed in December. The initial proposal, which has fallen like a bomb in the middle of the election campaign, proposes the construction of 399 homes between the potholes.

The Sant Vicenç de Montalt Golf complex, a facility presided over by businessman José Luis Díaz-Varela, closed on December 31, 2022 after "eight years of accumulating losses of 350,000 euros per year", according to sources from the address of the establishment.

The project presented to the City Council "is only a proposal", warns the mayor, Víctor Llasera. It details the claim of the land owners, among whom is the Díaz-Varela family, to build a new urbanization of 399 multi-family homes; 40% would go to public protection.

Gone are the statements in which several municipal sources indicated that the owner had no intention of selling the land and was committed to "guaranteeing the conservation of the natural space", as has happened, without revealing the interest of urban development.

In view of the impact that the proposal has had among the 6,661 residents, since if it were to materialize it would mean an increase of 20% of the population with approximately 1,200 new inhabitants, the current mayor explained that "I will submit it to a popular consultation and I will promote an information campaign". The scope of the project has generated various reactions, but above all caution, and even more so due to the fact that it was made known in the middle of the election campaign.

The "spectacular" project, in Llasera's opinion, "would change the town completely", although he warns that there are many preconditions for legal compliance. From an urban point of view, the Department of Urbanism of the Generalitat would have the last word, the body competent to authorize the promotion and endorse the modification of the urban qualification, since right now the gulf is registered as a green zone not buildable

The proposal also includes the construction of a bridge over the C-32 highway that would "save the winding route of Camí de les Fonts and improve the passage of vehicles", describes the text to which La Vanguardia has had access.

Around the C-32, the existing grove would be maintained, as a "green screen that preserves the viability of the residential sectors from the axis of the highway". In the rest of the green areas, they point out "that the natural colonization of herbaceous species will be allowed".

In the same way, the promotion also proposes numerous spaces for municipal equipment. The construction of a large amphitheater where major events could be held and the location of an international educational center stand out.

The initiative has already been opposed by opposition groups and ecologists who insist on recalling the similarities of the project with the controversy generated during the first decade of the eighties in the golf of Viladecans, also promoted by large business corporations, which also included some of the managers of the golf of Sant Vicenç de Montalt.

In the project of 400 homes, on which the City Council already began to survey in June 2022, numerous private interests converge, some of which are in litigation with the property due to discrepancies in the distribution of the urbanization.

At the same time, in Sant Vicenç there have already appeared negotiators and mediators from real estate companies who are desperately trying to sign agreements.