The Sustainability Delegation of the Junta de Andalucía has issued the Scope Document for the Strategic Environmental Study for the new Urban Planning of Torremolinos. The report sets the environmental criteria that the Town Hall must comply with before final approval.
The new Urban Planning (POU) of Torremolinos has passed a key milestone: the Sustainability and Environment Delegation of the Junta de Andalucía has issued the Scope Document for the Strategic Environmental Study. This technical report establishes the content and environmental criteria that the Town Hall must comply with before it can definitively approve the urban document.
Far from implying the approval of the plan, this step is an essential part of the strategic environmental assessment procedure. The Junta thus sets the roadmap that the City Council must follow to demonstrate that the future urban model is compatible with current environmental regulations.
The document, dated at the end of June, determines which aspects the Strategic Environmental Study accompanying the POU must analyse and which bodies must be consulted during the processing.
A Plan to Organise the Consolidated City
According to the official document, the objective of the POU is to develop the detailed urban planning of the urban land of Torremolinos, specifying the urban structure, detailed uses, and the building and urbanisation regulations provided for in the new Andalusian urban framework.
The proposal is based on a model centred on compact city, social cohesion, and the regeneration of the existing urban fabric, favouring rehabilitation over extensive growth. Among the strategic lines, the regeneration of degraded areas such as Torremolinos North and the historic centre, the creation of new urban centralities, and the improvement of residential quality stand out.
From an environmental perspective, the future planning aims to organise infrastructure and mobility through a green infrastructure that connects the mountains with the coast, urban corridors, a cycling network, new pedestrian routes, a Low Emission Zone, and improvements to public amenities.
What the Town Hall Must Analyse
The Scope Document does not assess whether the urban model is correct or incorrect. Its function is to determine which issues must be studied mandatorily before the POU can pass the strategic environmental assessment.
Among other matters, the Town Hall must analyse the effects of the plan on: water resources and availability, climate change and adaptation to extreme phenomena, natural risks such as floods or fires, biodiversity and natural spaces, urban and coastal landscape, air quality and noise, sustainable mobility, cultural heritage, and land and natural resource consumption.
Furthermore, the study must justify why the finally proposed urban model is chosen over other possible alternatives and establish preventive measures, corrective actions, and an environmental monitoring programme.
A notable aspect is that the scope of the future POU coincides with that already contemplated by the General Municipal Planning (PGOM) that the Town Hall is also processing. Therefore, part of the consultations with public administrations and sectoral bodies are coordinated with both instruments to avoid duplications.
For the residents of Torremolinos, this procedure means that the new urbanism of the city will not be a mere construction plan, but must guarantee environmental sustainability. The City Council will have to demonstrate that urban growth does not compromise natural resources or quality of life. The next step will be the drafting of the Strategic Environmental Study, which will be subjected to public information before the final approval of the POU.
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