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Plans for frontier leisure zone move foward
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by DAVID EADE
Whilst a battle may be on the cards between the Spanish government and La Línea over the allocation of land for the new air terminal at the border the local administration is set to proceed with its plans for a major leisure development in the zone.
The land required by the Spanish airport authority, AENA, is only a small area of the macro-project that takes in the lands of the Ciudad Deportiva, the fair ground, the Princesa Sofía park and the Santa Bárbara fort.
However the decision of La Línea town hall to bring this forward before the row over the ceding of the land for the terminal is completed could be seen as provocative. It certainly reinforces La Línea’s demand that AENA pays it a fair rate for the land rather than the cash stricken municipality being forced to hand it over on the promise of wealth to come.
JOINT VENTURE
It is anticipated that the municipality will seek to form a joint venture for the project with the majority of the capital coming from private sources. Gibraltarian and Middle East investors are said to be waiting in the wings with plans for developing the land with hotels, leisure zones, a commercial centre and underground parking. This would include the refurbishment of the Santa Barbára fort and the replanting of the park.
The town hall is taking a cross party approach to the project with a study group having been formed with a ruling Partido Popular councillor considering the plans with a PSOE and IU councillor plus a representative of the UPL and town hall officials.
This working group has now finished its report and its members met again on Monday. It is understood that this latest encounter was to finalise the document that will go before a full council meeting for approval. No date has been fixed for this meeting but the administration is keen for it to happen as soon as possible.
It is understood that the document will include an annex that will state that any development project will exclude the lands of the covered swimming pool, the paddle tennis club and the football stadium which the town hall has leased out on administrative contracts.
The working group had suggested the best formula would be for the town hall and other public administrations to take a 10 per cent interest in the joint venture company with the balance going to private investors after a tendering process had been carried out.
PROCESS
It is early days and the town hall is just starting out on the process that would require it to publish notices in official bulletins, hold a tendering process culminating in the development of the lands and the re-urbanisation of the zone.
Nonetheless the view of the administration is: “this is an important zone to establish, within the permitted uses, complementary sporting, leisure and tourism schemes that would bring to the municipality sources of investment, wealth and employment.” It will also further pressure the ministry of public works, through its AENA arm, to pay the going rate for the airport terminal land.
17-11-10
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