OPINION | Josep Vicent Miralles, councilor of the Socialist Municipal Group
Where is the living model of a town that is building at the pace of the 90s and has nearly 6.000 tourist homes headed?
Everywhere you look, you'll find machines, signs for new promotions, and excavators breaking rock. As in the old peninsular legend, a tourist could cross from the Cape San Antonio until The granadella from crane to crane without touching the ground.
The bad news is that urban development in Xàbia is advancing at speeds reminiscent of the 90s (the rate of new construction has grown by 25%), and prices are exceeding those of the real estate bubble (more than €3.000/m²). The worst news is that those houses aren't for you, or for anyone you know. Especially for young people, who have to leave Xàbia—increasingly farther away due to the contagion effect in the Marina Alta—and are replaced by casual investors and weekend suitcases on wheels.
There's no need to emphasize the social harm this entails: loss of roots, destruction of the network of relationships, cultural disintegration, separation of families and friends, brain drain, dependence on tourism, indifference toward the future of the town by those who don't feel it's theirs, destruction of essential spaces...
…And a third factor, which faces its test of fire: coexistence.
What had been a traditional value of quality of life in Xàbia is now a fragile and brittle reality.
The Easter season marks the first peak of the year. It's time to see what's happening with the town's tourist properties and what price the residents will pay to have houses converted into businesses next door. In this gold rush, the gold is for a few and the rush for everyone.
The complaint is widespread. People of all stripes and backgrounds are persistently expressing their discontent. Sleepless nights, disturbances, fights, overwhelmed police, record numbers of unreceived calls, damage... and collapsed services. Furthermore, there's no economic return in the form of taxes, because without a tourist tax, we Valencians are playing with one hand tied behind our backs. We're losing millions of euros that could be used for places, sanitation, training, aid, maintenance of natural spaces... as other successful destinations in our area do.
Xàbia has nearly 6.000 tourist rental homes and a moratorium in place thanks to our insistence, but six months have passed without any decision being made. Who governs here? Getting year-round rentals is mission impossible. The General Plan, which was supposed to protect 6 million square meters, is sitting in a drawer—with no desire to be brought out—and its transitional measures have expired. There's a report from the University of Alicante stating that Duanes shouldn't issue any more licenses due to the risk of overcrowding... And we're still at a standstill.
Faced with this, what we've seen in recent months is an Urban Planning Department with the officials who are supposed to ensure legality leaving (someone will have to explain why), and while these officials walk out the door, the council's office is rolling out the "red carpet" for developers and builders from outside our town. Residents and second-home owners are already clutching their heads.
It's time to be brave, defend a village model, and move tourist rentals out of neighborhoods and apartment blocks and concentrate them in scattered areas and single-family homes. It's also time to stop allocating unlimited resources to granting new construction permits and start looking toward public infrastructure, housing renovations, and inspections for irregularities in a municipality that cannot become a monopoly.
Either that, or assume that Xàbia SL is no longer a town and we're not residents. If we're lucky, temporary employees. Would you like a coffee, sir?
Madam Mayor, when will the sealed containers be installed on the plain? This will prevent the risk of fires.
Abandoned Neighbors.
What can anyone expect from a municipal architect who can ignore all the rules and build illegally and do NOTHING?
What does anyone expect when the town architect can flout all the rules and build illegality and NOTHING is done!
Not to mention the recently implemented new "economic engine": music festivals held next to residential areas. A major problem for both locals and tourists who come looking for peace and quiet, only to find themselves in such a frenzy that they'll never return. The idea of a peaceful tourist destination with a quality of life has been ruined.
In surprise this article for the clarity and knowledge of the issue that affects all the citizens of Xàbia, faces in surprise more the person who wrote it and the charges that have tingut in the darrers anys. I am neither a member of the PP (junkies of diners), nor of the PSOE (junkies of servilism and ambiguity). But I have been able to confirm that this gentleman has a harder face than the formigó or suffers from a psychiatric illness that is diu Bipolaritat, miereseu.
Miralles will also leave the town council and urban planning department in your mandate...
Saps why??? But don't look at the workers (officials) who donate everything for the people, rare; 18 years in precarious (interi), this month I will return to vote for you, neither me nor any of my family because both the pa is not play.
Measurements to be taken by the City Council:
1.- Suspension of Vivendes Turístiques JA licenses.
2.- Revocation of licenses that are not complex or not suitable for use. Also to the speculators who have them and do not use them.
3.- Tourist tax, per fer against the “diseconomies” generated by Airbnbs.
4.- Increase in the IBI where you live unemployed.
….. and wait for the voltors to wander somewhere else and speculate.
Exact
Oh Vicent, oh Vicent, I'm glad you're now concerned about tourist housing, about the cranes, and about the entire housing policy that your beloved leader ignored during his 11 years in government. In 2020, the year of the pandemic, more licenses were granted in nine months than in all of 2019; the same trend continued in 2021, and in 2022. And many of the cranes you see now are licenses your beloved leader granted: Aedas in Juan Carlos I, 100 homes; Avenida dels Furs three; Sunset Tennis Club/Nightclub Zone; and many more in Arenal, some encroaching on a green area. And zero VPO projects, not one. But of course, this isn't interesting now, and since the PP governs, you're only interested in telling part of the story. But look, fortunately, it's a government that believes in the Urban Planning Council, and everything is reviewed there, everything is reviewed, just like when your party was in power, when it met once a year out of obligation.
As clear as day. Miralles now discovers the Mediterranean, without any shame. As if the problem were something new. What did the illustrious congressman Chulvi do during the years of socialist government?
How daring, Miralles
Chapeau!!!!Qui no vullga understand ho faisgen ulls tancats….(it is only known now that the tirs are going)…great article that is realistic and pur of the current reality of xabia.Congratulations on the article.
Vicent, how sad that your mateixa tells you Cheapeau!! Vicent i Bogamarí pointed out that tired llepaculs
My mother!!!!!!!!!
Quin article…
Mentrestant, José Chulvi, keep quiet.