“There are several convictions for building swimming pools on common non-developable land, I have had clients with that case.” This is how a lawyer specialized in urban planning expresses himself in reference to the illegal constructions in the family home of Juan Francisco Pérez Llorca, popular spokesperson in the Valencian Courts and Secretary of Organization of Carlos Mazón’s PP. Pérez Llorca obtained the municipal licenses from the Finestrat City Council, of which he has been mayor since 2015 and of which, previously, he was councilor for Urban Planning. The council intends to regularize a hundred homes built on non-developable land, within the framework of a special plan to minimize territorial impact, providing them with basic services such as waste collection, sanitation or drinking water. The Finestrat City Council, when asked by this newspaper, has not clarified whether the mayor’s family home would enter this regularization process, although Juan Francisco Pérez Llorca assured this newspaper that his residence was excluded.
In the 822 square meter property, a swimming pool, a gazebo and a parking lot were built despite the fact that it is common non-developable land. “That is clearly illegal,” says an architect, who also alludes to the existence in the Valencian territory, especially in coastal areas, of “thousands and thousands of homes” on non-developable land.
With the broad arm of certain councils, in the heat of the real estate business, the possibility of erecting small buildings on plots with farming tools has become a “historical drain”, the same source abounds. “These town councils have allowed everything,” says another urban planning expert.
On the other hand, the plot owned by the first mayor of Finestrat did not have any irrigation pond. Although, as mayor, he obtained municipal licenses to reform and expand the pool in 2016, orthophotos from the Valencian Cartographic Institute (ICV) show that previously there was only a circular inflatable pool in another area of the plot. As of 2020, the orthophoto available in the ICV viewer, which illustrates this information, already shows the built pool.
On the other hand, Mazón’s number two did not detail any homes in his declaration of assets before the Valencian Courts despite the fact that he is co-owner of two companies, with total assets of 4.3 million euros, which own eight properties, as as elDiario.es has reported.
The plot, owned by the Perez Llorca family, is located at the foot of Puig Campana, 165 meters from the protected area. “In the hypothetical case that the plan being processed wanted to be modified, it would have to be subjected to a strategic environmental evaluation that would verify that the territorial and urban planning model of Finestrat (not just those plots in isolation) is respectful and environmentally acceptable,” reflects another. architect specialized in urban planning and landscape.
“No other regime can be anticipated other than the non-urbanizable land in force in the applicable planning, nor could it be considered a ‘de facto’ situation as urbanized land even if it had some urban planning services, which should be legally implemented,” adds the same source, which It also notes that, in that hypothetical situation, the state land law requirement of being within an urban grid would not be met.
In any case, the Administrative Litigation Chamber of the Superior Court of Justice of the Valencian Community (TSJ-CV) has issued numerous resolutions on similar cases in recent years.
The high regional court established, in a 2022 ruling relating to a construction on common non-developable land in Barxeta (València), that “in no way” can an owner rely on a license granted to legalize the construction of a garage, a swimming pool or a porch. Another ruling from the same Chamber endorsed, also in 2022, the restoration of urban planning legality through the demolition of a swimming pool built on common non-developable land in the municipality of Villena (Alicante).
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