Dressed in yellow and carrying balloons and banners, members of the Patacona Neighborhood Association are also campaigning these days. In this case against the PSPV (which has governed Alboraia since 2011), PP and Vox and the reason is the real estate project that the developer Metrovacesa projects in the municipality and to which these groups support.
The association harshly criticizes the project and these days they take to the streets to protest against these local candidacies. They believe that “they should represent the interests and well-being of the residents who voted for them” and that, instead, “what they are doing is defending tooth and nail the interests of the construction company Metrovacesa knowing that the Vinival project that intending to build in an already stressed Patacona would drastically impoverish our well-being, and would condemn us for life to overcrowding,” they maintain.
They speak of “urban ball” and directly ask for the vote for Ciudadanos, Alboraya Actúa, CompromÃs, Izquierda Unidad or Podemos, as they say they are “committed to canceling the project and starting a new one taking into account the physical and social needs of La Patacona”.
CompromÃs, for example, includes in its program the dignification of the surroundings of the Vinival space, as well as the investigation of alternatives that contribute to a “considerable reduction” of housing, an increase in subsidized housing, with consideration at the same time for the neighborhood and the analysis and study of alternatives for “other uses, far from residential.”
The campaign carried out by the neighborhood association reached a high point when last Thursday the 11th they addressed the mayor and socialist candidate for re-election, Miguel ChavarrÃa, in a campaign act of the same in the municipal market and he accused them of disseminating lies in their billboards, which they distribute these days in the town. There is a home video that reproduces the discussion between ChavarrÃa and the neighbors that the latter have circulated.
“We do not have particular interests, of which they accuse us. We want the best for Alboraiaâ€, explains the First Deputy Mayor and Town Planning Councilor, Ana Bru. The person in charge of the branch explains that the project began at the beginning of the legislature, during which the details have been outlined.
The real estate complex will be located in the Vinival winery area, an area of ​​private land – more than 140,000 square meters – where a total of 1,042 homes will be built distributed in buildings between 11 and 18 floors. “The City Council is involved in the demands and in compliance with the law and in all the needs that appear, first of all those that we ask for and also in the neighbors that have been collected in the participation process,” Bru details.
For Bru, it is a necessary project given the need for housing in the town: of the 1,042 flats, 30% will be public housing. “In Alboraia young people are being expelled, there is a clear need for housing. The 1,042 homes that will be built are needed, â€explains the councilor, who estimates 80 empty homes in this sector.
“We do not have, as they say, ‘thousands of empty houses’, we have carried out a study of empty houses and we have verified it. There are only about eighty and another two hundred in the old town, between old houses and drying shedsâ€, explains the person in charge of Urban Planning. The neighbors call it a “pernicious” project; Bru explains that “it is planned with a vision of the future and not with the idea of ​​crowding anyone there. It will be good for the municipality.â€
The plenary session of the Alboraya City Council approved in September 2011 the start of the public participation procedure for this urban development. The approval was by an absolute majority and now the project is awaiting the environmental evaluation, the result of which is expected after the elections. The project includes a school and a civic center, as well as a rehabilitation of the old Vinival wineries. Ana Bru explains that, taking this into account, the City Council also requested underground car parks, since it is expected that the wineries will be the epicenter of the cultural and social life of the new neighborhood.
