Foreign property owners in the Marina Baixa region of Valencia’s Alicante province (South Costa Blanca), have organised themselves into a group called Veïns de L’Alfàs (Residents of L’Alfàs) to defend their rights as property owners against the town council and local property developers.
Marco Perotti, president of the Veïns de L’Alfàs association, told the Spanish press that his association will take legal action, in both Spain and EU courts, against a Mayor whose “predatory lust” for land lies behind the Pla de la Serra planning scheme, which involves the construction of 2,000 homes on 80 hectares of land, most of which is made up of small private holdings. 40 foreign owners have had their land “invaded” and stand to lose some or all of their land to the scheme.
“Owners have no defence against rapacious urban development,” Perotti told the press. “The only difference between the LUV and the LRAU is the name, because both end forced boundary changes in which owners who can’t pay lose their homes.” (The LUV is a Valencian Urban Planning Law that replaced the controversial ‘land grab’ law, known as the LRAU).
Perotti also claims that the Mayor withheld important information on the planning scheme from the association.
With more than 100 members, Veïns de L’Alfàs is organising a conference on urban planning abuses scheduled for the 18th August.