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ARCHIVED - Activists renew appeal to demolish the Ghost Hotel of Algarrobico
The Almeria Azata del Sol hotel has been crumbling into ruin since 2006
A full two decades after the first blocks were laid, the city council of Carboneras is finally examining options to change the planning law that would class the land on which the ‘Ghost Hotel of Algarrobico’ is built as ‘undevelopable’, thus allowing it to be knocked down.
It’s hard to believe that the concrete monstrosity was ever given the green light. Construction began on the ill-fated Azata del Sol hotel in 2003 and, located just 50 metres from the Almeria shoreline, the building was supposed to have 21 floors and 411 rooms.
However, the construction was halted in 2006 when environmental activists sued the developers, claiming the “illegal hotel” was being built on the protected land of the Cabo de Gata-Níjar Natural Park.
Seventeen years after the building work stopped, the ghost hotel is still standing on Algarrobico beach although the matter has been dragged through the courts on more than 20 separate occasions. In 2011, the Superior Court of Justice of Andalusia (TSJA) urged the City Council of Carboneras to modify the construction licence granted for the hotel, since the existing municipal planning states that the land on which the Azata del Sol hotel stands is developable.
This is despite a 2018 court decision that ruled the opposite based on the fact that the site is nestled within the natural park.
Greenpeace has this week asked the TSJA to set a deadline fro the Carboneras City Council to change the Algarrobico to undeveloped land “of special protection” since the authorities have once more asked for more time to study the planning laws.
This is nothing more than a “new delaying manoeuvre” by the council, according to the activists, who insist that mayor José Luis Amérigo has little interest in demolishing the ghost hotel.
Amérigo, on the other hand, claims to be considering two options that would finally resolve the issue, both of which concern changes to the General Urban Planning legislation. A “partial modification”, according to the mayor, would allow the council to classify the land on which the hotel is standing as non-developable and protected as a “natural area of general interest.”
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