The environmental organizations SOS Costa Brava and Aigua és Vida claim the need to apply an “immediate” moratorium to stop the construction of second homes in the 22 municipalities on the coast of Girona.
They assure that these municipalities have a “growth potential” of between 40,000 and 50,000 residences, a figure that rises to 75,000 if the second-line towns are added.
The Urban Master Plan (PDU) for unsustainable soils on the Costa Brava, approved in 2021, stopped the construction of some 15,000 homes, a figure that ecologists consider “insufficient”.
They understand that if a moratorium is not approved to stop the construction of second homes, not only will the coastline be “destroyed”, but there will be a “continued increase in the cost of water” and “more severe” restrictions that will not only affect homes. existing, from locals and tourists, but to all businesses.
The vice-president of Sos Costa Brava, Pau Bosch, considers a “radical contradiction” the decree that involves the elimination of up to 17,000 homes for tourist use in Girona and at the same time continuing to build “thousands of second homes, gardens, swimming pools, destroying forests and landscape while the water and energy needs of the Costa Brava are increasing”.
He also describes as a “flagrant contradiction” that there are restrictions in the primary sector and yet there are no moratoriums on swimming pools or second homes.
In this sense, he considers that “a real moratorium” is necessary and rentals should be allowed in second homes already built. Bosch is convinced that the tourist housing that the Girona coast will lose with the Generalitat decree will lead to the construction of more hotels. He gives the example of Pals, where he assures that three new hotel facilities will be built, some on the front line.
Furthermore, environmentalists consider that the agreement signed by the Girona City Council and the Consorci d’Aigües de la Costa Brava (CCB), an organization dependent on the Girona Provincial Council, gives the green light to “urban and speculative interests” on the coast and fails to comply with the at the same time the Law of Ter.
The agreement increases the transfer of the Ter River on the Costa Brava by 1,380 liters per second, a fact that they understand gives way to new constructions.
