At the foot of the imposing Puig Campana, the third highest Valencian peak and a protected area in the municipality of Finestrat, in the Marina Baixa region (Alicante). There is the house where the general secretary of the PP of the Valencian Community, ombudsman of the conservatives in the regional Parliament and mayor of the municipality, Juan Francisco Pérez Llorca, resides. In what is known as Pla de la Vila and in front of the Font del Molí, the typical fountain where hundreds of hikers stop as they begin their climb to the mythical mountain. The home, owned by the politician’s family and which has not been declared before the Valencian Parliament, is on a rural plot that has the municipal classification of non-urbanizable, therefore it does not comply with the urban planning law.
The property has just over 800 square meters and is listed in the cadastre as a home with a dry crop field and a tool house. Currently, the field attached to the house no longer has almond trees or vineyards planted, as is usual in the area, but is a concrete slab with a garden and on it a covered parking lot has been built, a construction for barbecues and meals with numerous diners (now known as a gazebo) and a swimming pool.
These constructions, according to the Finestrat City Council, would be out of planning as they are on “common non-developable land” and, therefore, would be illegal, as elDiario.es has been able to confirm from expert sources in urban planning. Sources from the Urban Planning area of the Finestrat City Council explain to this newspaper that the gazebo was “registered” in 2006 and the “renovation and expansion” of the pool was in 2016, when Pérez Llorca was already mayor of the town where he governs. with an absolute majority since 2015, although he has already been an Urban Planning councilor since 2007.
The case of the gazebo is striking, since it is not only a construction for cooking, but it has a small ‘riu-rau’ to provide shade and is glazed. The parking lot, the Town Planning Department of the council alleges, “is common in homes in the area” and “a license is never requested” to build the structure.
The main house was registered in 1992 and was owned by Juan Francisco Pérez Llorca’s grandmother. It is where the ‘number two’ of the Valencian PP resides. The house, which exceeds 100 square meters in area, dates back to before 1987, was registered in 1992 and was renovated in 2017, according to sources from the Finestrat City Council.
The main property is also out of planning, but should not be demolished as the mandatory time has passed since it was illegally built and the last urban planning law in force has passed. The city council should have acted against the expansion that was carried out seven years ago.
Regarding the irregularity of the constructions on the plot, sources from the Finestrat City Council recognize that the house, the pool, the gazebo and the parking lot would be out of planning, but that they should not be demolished because they fall under article 256 of the consolidated text of the Law of Territorial Planning, Urban Planning and Landscape (LOTUP) of the Valencian Community. “As you cannot act against these constructions,” say town planning sources, “they can be governed by article 256 of the LOTUP.”
The aforementioned article of the standard indicates: “In order to reduce the negative impact of these constructions and buildings, the acting administration may order the execution of the works that are necessary so as not to disturb the safety, health and decoration or landscape of the environment. ”. That is, connect them to the sewer to avoid blind wells and other actions that could damage the environment, as has already been done.
Of course, the same article of the LOTUP also states that “the mere passage of the fifteen-year period referred to in the previous article will not entail the legalization of works and constructions carried out without complying with urban planning legality and, consequently, while If the violation of urban planning persists, no reform, expansion or consolidation works may be carried out on what was illegally built.
That is to say, neither the main home nor the pool could have been expanded because they were made after August 20, 2014, when the LOTUP came into force. In short, the city council would have tolerated that the different renovations, extensions or constructions of the home, the swimming pool, the gazebo or the parking could be carried out without taking action against them.
In the case of the swimming pool, no pond painted on the plan appears in the cadastre, so its initial construction would raise legal doubts, since there was no prior irrigation pond. The Finestrat City Council gave permission to renovate and expand the pool in 2016, with Pérez Llorca as mayor. All of these constructions would have been possible on a plot of rural land greater than 10,000 meters, but not on one of 822 meters.
The technical explanation of the housing problems of the ‘number two’ of the Valencian PP and right-hand man of Carlos Mazón, was given to this newspaper by the chief architect of the Urban Planning department of the Finestrat City Council.
When asked by elDiario.es, Pérez Llorca himself explains that the houses in the area are consolidated, “with paved streets,” and denies any irregularity because the constructions were carried out when “a previous law” was in force, so they would be legal. and there would be “no problem”, just as there would be no need to act against them.
Furthermore, he adds, “all works have a license.” Regarding home ownership, the PP Ombudsman in the Valencian Parliament also affirms that the property belongs to the family and that, for this reason, he does not have to declare it before the Cortes.
Finestrat is a municipality that has had many urban planning problems as a result of its privileged location, on a mountain with views of the sea and next to the city of Benidorm. In fact, when the former PP councilor Esteban González Pons intervened in the urban planning of the municipality of Catral in 2006, Finestrat was also in the spotlight due to the abundant urban planning irregularities and the exploitation of the territory.
In the area where Pérez Llorca’s house is located there are other houses built on rustic land before 1984 and 1985. The mayor’s house is the last one in Pla de la Vila and, further on, the visitor can enjoy the pine forest that connects with the Puig Campana area.
The town was governed by the PSPV-PSOE until 2007, when the PP took over the mayor’s office. Pérez Llorca, right-hand man between 2007 and 2015 of the then mayor, Honorato Algado, was responsible for Urban Planning and Technical Services, the most important department in the years of the real estate boom.
In 2015, the current ‘number two’ of the Valencian PP presented himself as a candidate and obtained the absolute majority, which he revalidated in 2019. In the last municipal elections, in 2023, Carlos Mazón’s right hand in the party swept, obtaining 11 of the 13 councilors.
Finestrat is a melting pot, with residents of around 70 nationalities who bought their homes in the area, many of them in an irregular situation. Pérez Llorca’s greatest promise for this legislature is to regularize nearly a hundred homes that were built on undeveloped land. A gift for the lucky ones.
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