dep art amento de conser v ación y - Fundación César Manrique

Suggestions on the
Draft General Urban
Planning Scheme
for Arrecife submitted
by the Monitoring
Committee
FCM’s suggestions
for the design
to regenerate the
Montaña Roja Beach
to be informed and consulted prior to drafting the Special
Plan, to provide the board with the opportunity to form
and convey its opinion on the type of protective action
that could be planned for La Geria. Consequently, it called
for the withdrawal of the present Draft Special Plan for
the area.
In 2002 the FCM created a Monitoring Committee for the
General Urban Planning Scheme for Arrecife (PGOUA) to
compile the ideas put forward by a number of citizens who
met on several occasions in 2002 and 2003 to discuss
Arrecife’s future in terms of urban design and analyse the
content of the city’s zoning plans. The committee, headed
by a team of urban planners whose membership includes
Professors Joaquín Sabaté (head of the Department of
Urban Design at the School of Architecture of Barcelona)
and Miguel Corominas (full professor of urban design at
the School of Architecture of Barcelona), discussed and
drafted the text advancing and substantiating the
committee’s suggestions.
On 30 April, the FCM presented these suggestions to the
social partners, political groupings and the media.
On 14 July, the FCM presented its suggestions on the design
to regenerate Montaña Roja Beach (Playa Blanca, Lanzarote).
The institution believes that the present unlimited tourist
development must be curbed by strategies and decisions that
guarantee environmental and social balance and conservation
of the natural environment and quality of life. Consequently,
the proposal to build further artificial beaches to spur the
creation of new tourist centres, with the concomitant
increase in the pressure brought to bear on the territory and
nearby communities, not to mention the adverse effect on the
coastal environment, was found by the FCM to be
questionable at best.
Since in the FCM’s view the project entails irreversible
damage to the natural values of the beach, it suggested that its
arguments be heard and the developer’s proposal rejected.
Furthermore, the foundation submitted that any action should
be limited strictly to cleaning and/or a scientific design for
environmental restoration that would not alter the values of
the beach or its on- or off-shore surroundings.
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