The president of the Cabildo of Tenerife, Pedro Martín, shows its support for the Punta de Abona tourist macro-complex project pOrque provides benefits to a municipality in need of investment and the diversification of its economy, it does not overcrowd land occupation as Arico is the second largest municipality on the island and its design responds to the conditions imposed by the administration. With this, he exposes his disagreement with the Government of the Canary Islands, which paralyzes the realization of this work with environmental and urban arguments.
“I do not think it presents a problem of tourist overcrowding,” says Martín Domínguez, who resorts to the fact that “Arico is the largest municipality on the island, if we remove La Orotava, with the Teide National Park». Along these lines, it also refers to the fact that “the largest building and the one that occupies the most space in its limits is the Environmental Complex”, the main building of the island landfill.
From a technical perspective, Pedro Martín maintains that the Punta de Abona tourist complex is a project “that has been modified according to the requirements of the administrations, also from an environmental point of view, and, probably, new changes could be made based on what the evaluation requires in this area. ‘ In line with that analysis, he values that “it could be an interesting and good project for Arico that, unfortunately, like many others that arise on this island, are questioned after decades and decades of waiting.” The president of the Cabildo is clear: «It seems legitimate to me that a tourism project can be developed there. It is not asking for more ».
Differences in the PSOE
With that, Pedro Martin it stages the existence of differences of opinion within the PSOE regarding this work. Thus, he disagrees with the regional councilor for Ecological Transition, the Fight against Climate Change and Territorial Policy, José Antonio Valbuena, who argues that the Punta de Abona tourist complex “does not report any benefit to the environment, no matter how many compensatory measures are proposed”. that it “would unleash irreparable damage.” For this reason, the Canarian Government rejected the partial suspension of the planning of Arico to make the construction of this project possible.
Punta de Abona was declared in 2016 as a strategic project by the Government of the Canary Islands. Thus, the Cabildo de Tenerife proposed, in 2018, to modify the subsidiary regulations in force in Arico, a measure that the regional Executive now rejects. It does so based on a report from the Vice-Ministry for the Fight against Climate Change and Ecological Transition which, in addition to referring to the fact that “it fails to comply with the determination of the Island Management Plan relative to the scope of implementation of tourist uses”, cites affections to a space with more than 30 species that require some degree of protection –even to the danger of extinction, in some cases– as well as the existing dune system in the place and the tabaibales.
The future of the project depends on the supplementary General Management Plan (PGO), a document that is currently being prepared by the Government of the Canary Islands and to which the initiative of the company Playa de Arico SA is incorporated, as announced on January 20, 2020 This planning will be the one that determines the compatible uses for the land of this strip of the Arico coast.
The numbers
Punta de Abona is a project valued at more than 300 million euros of private investment (from the Giacomini family) that would provide Arico with almost 3,000 tourist beds in four five-star hotels. It would create 1,550 direct jobs (plus hundreds indirect), of which between 50% and 70% would occupy the local market. It would occupy 1,700,000 square meters, of which 300,000 (17%) have hotel use (between 62,000 and 81,000 square meters each); more than 400,000 would serve as a coastal promenade; 560,000 square meters would house an environmental regeneration space and another 50,000 public squares and parks, as well as commercial and recreational facilities. It would use wind, solar, hydraulic, geothermal, tidal and aerothermal renewable energy combined with management and control systems.
