Amendment to the Mallorca territorial plan is due to be approved by the Council of Mallorca at its full session just after Christmas. A key aspect of this plan is that it will eliminate 700 hectares of land classified as being for potential development.
In addition to these 700 hectares, the plan will establish that urban land cannot be expanded until all plots are used. There is to be a limit to urban land growth of 3.2%. This is an unprecedented limitation. In 1999, legislation which introduced the territorial plan allowed growth of up to 10%. In 2004, the first of what are now three amendments to the territorial plan reduced this to 7.5%, which was later modified to 5.45% in 2011.
The councillor for territory, Maria Antònia Garcia. says that "growth is adequate to the needs that have been defined in different municipalities".
The Council has been working with town halls that will be most affected - fifteen in all - and specify areas where it will be possible to have new developments.