The latest amendment to the Mallorca territorial plan will eliminate the possibility of creating 2,374 tourist accommodation places. In other words, the plan will block the building of new hotels - two of them, the most significant project having been one of 2,100 beds in Son Durí, close to Es Trenc beach and the Sa Rapita yacht club.
This planned project, which has generated controversy and protest in the past, is for a 16.8 hectare scrubland and pine wood site. Restriction had already been imposed through the Council of Mallorca's PIAT plan for intervention in tourist areas, but the territorial plan goes a step further in definitively protecting the site from development.
The other project, for 274 beds, is in Cala Sant Vicenç (Pollensa). The Council of Mallorca's councillor for territory, Maria Antònia Garcías, says that "it will be good that some places are preserved, as from a landscape perspective they are not suitable for development". The site in question includes virgin pine forest, which will now be protected.
Regarding both projects, Garciàs points to climate change and landscape criteria adopted under the amended territorial plan. Therefore, "there should not be building on these sites". "Reducing unnecessary territorial consumption” is a pillar of the amendment. In the future, environmental criteria must be followed, such as the planting of new trees.
Of other planned developments that will not now be able to go ahead is one in Deya. "If this land were to be built on, it would alter the panoramic characteristic of the village," the councillor notes. "The landscape is Mallorca's main asset. It must be preserved."