662 new homes in a forest with shacks next to the Cadiretes mountain range

LloretMont Lloret is one of the last branches of the residential development complex in Lloret de Mar, kilometers inland from the beach, halfway between the sea and Vidreres. At this point, between Calafat Hill and Montgròs, lies Can Sota Mountain, a very leafy, hidden wooded area next to the Cadiretes mountain range, where around a hundred houses, shacks, and cabins are scattered, many of them unused or in poor condition, built without permission or license among paths and tracks. Recently, the Lloret City Council approved a modification to the municipal urban plan (POUM) for this area, covering approximately 50 hectares, to allow for the construction of up to 662 homes. Faced with this scenario, which would completely change the urban landscape of this mountain, SOS Costa Brava and SOS Lloret have spoken out and filed objections to the council's measures.

Environmentalists criticize the fact that urban development of this magnitude would completely destroy the environmental value of this area, recognized by the Girona Provincial Council's catalogs as an area of natural and landscape interest: "It is a major biological connector with the Cadiretes massif itself, which is recognized within the biodiversity plan, landscape unit, cork oak forest, and a pine forest area," argues Jordi Palaudelmàs, spokesperson for SOS Lloret and president of SOS Costa Brava. He continues: "It would have a huge impact, because it is an area with very steep slopes, over 20%, visible from many other points in the municipality." The Lloret-based platform agrees that it is necessary to resolve the situation of the shacks in poor condition, without living quarters, that currently populate the mountain and spoil the environment, but in no way accept that the solution involves converting the entire space into a new housing development.

A development that doubles the size of the town center of Lloret

Along these same lines, Eduard de Ribot, a lawyer for SOS Costa Brava, laments that the City Council's project to build more than 600 apartments in a forest that is practically twice the size of Lloret de Mar's old town, does not take into account the requirements of the master plan. It also does not provide for alternative developments nor has it commissioned any environmental assessment study: "It will be a residential development for approximately 2,500 people, occupying a mountain based on an old plan with all the shortcomings in openings, streets, and forest tracks, and no flood risk or hydraulic assessment studies have been conducted." For all these reasons, both entities consider that the council's proposal violates the urban master plan for the review of unsustainable land on the Girona coast, the territorial plan for the Girona regions, and even the urban planning law itself.

The Lloret de Mar City Council, for its part, responds that, according to the POUM (Construction Plan) in force since 2007, up to 770 homes could be built in the same area, and that the modification of the POUM approved by the City Council plenary session proposes reducing the area of the already planned developable land and reduces density. Thus, municipal sources positively assess the measure because it will serve to reduce the built-up area and confirm that in no case is this a new development or any new implementation, but rather responds to compliance with the guidelines of the urban planning regulations.