Tuesday, 11 November 2025, 16:38
The development of the Barranco de La Coladilla area of Nerja on the eastern Costa del Sol is included in the town’s General Urban Development Plan (PGOU), approved in 2000. However, despite the fact that the town hall sold the land in 2003 for 15.2 million euros to a property developer, the Junta de Andalucía regional government blocked the construction of a golf course, hotels and a thousand homes in the area with the 2006 Axarquía Territorial Planning Plan (POTAX). A long legal battle ended in 2014 with a Supreme Court ruling in favour of the town hall, which was then, as now, governed by the Partido Popular (PP) with an absolute majority.
Almost eleven years after that legal victory and following various bureaucratic procedures, the project, albeit with substantial modifications, was reactivated in early 2025. However, the area covered by the development has been reduced by half, with the golf course and hotel rooms being removed from the plans, which now only include housing, land for facilities, road infrastructure and open spaces. There would be 964 new properties, of which 386 would be social housing (VPO). In addition, land is reserved for social, educational and sports facilities, roads, bridges and open spaces.
In February 2025 the Nerja town hall approved the project, after which there was a period of public consultation. The municipal political group Podemos Izquierda Unida con Nerja and the environmental group, Gabinete de Estudios de la Naturaleza de la Axarquía (GENA-Ecologistas en Acción) put forward objections.
Objections
The objections were rejected at the last full council meeting held on 30 October and gave the green light for the project to continue, with the preparation of the corresponding sectoral reports by the various departments of other public administrations, including the Andalusian regional government.
The matter went ahead with the sole vote in favour from the PP and the rejection of the PSOE, as well as the IU councillor, Ángela Aponte. A number of opponents to the project, including opposition party councillors, staged a protest at the Barranco de La Coladilla during a recent sporting event, as the runners passed by, among them the mayor of Nerja, José Alberto Armijo (PP).
During the town hall meeting, the councillor for urban planning, Alberto Tomé (PP), insisted that the project had received all favourable reports in its initial and final approval. He pointed out that the PGOU was approved unanimously and that the Andalusian regional government authorised the sale of the plot. “It does not affect livestock trails or the natural park,” he said.
He went on to say, “We are embarking on a journey. It will require environmental impact studies, statements, visits to all the regional ministries and delegations, Culture, Heritage, the Cave, the natural park…,” before it can be implemented.
Protesters during the recent sporting event.
SUR
Regarding criticism from the left-wing opposition, Tomé said, “Without a doubt we will be vigilant, both us and all the administrations. We are working in all sectors and we hope to have more land sooner rather than later. This is what needs to be done, an urban management action, if we want to be environmentally friendly,” He went on to say that GENA “does not reject the project outright” .
IU spokesperson Ángela Aponte said, “The LISTA law does not support these projects, which insist on more concrete, more pressure on water resources, more private cars and are a threat to the Nerja Cave as a Unesco World Heritage Site, without clear impact studies on the Nerja Cave.”
PSOE spokesperson Patricia Gutiérrez argued that the project “is not compatible with sustainable tourism” and criticised the fact that it was the drafting team that responded to the objections. “It is a very utopian macro-project, far removed from the habitable Nerja and we do not know how accessible it will be,” she added. “We are here to warn you of the dangers of this project, due to its proximity to the cave and the natural park, when there are other areas that can be developed closer to the town centre,” Gutiérrez pointed out.
Public use land (general and local) accounts for 49% of the total land to be developed, with 227,972 square metres, while commercial use accounts for 51%, with 236,517 square metres. The total land area where the action would take place covers 464,489.73 square metres north of the Nerja Cave and bordering the Sierras Tejeda, Almijara and Alhama Natural Park.
The municipal estate, which was sold for almost 15.2 million euros in 2004, covered more than one million square metres. The Barranco de la Coladilla provides access to the Pinarillo area, a municipal recreational area from which numerous routes depart, allowing visitors to reach the mountains in the protected area shared by the provinces of Malaga and Granada.
The land in question is home to a huge reforested pine forest, which is more than 50 years old, as well as several tracks and trails. It is a valley of glacial and periglacial origin, according to experts such as Miguel Bueno, a Malaga-based geologist. In 2014, Bueno launched an online petition against the Barranco de la Coladilla urban development project, which gathered almost 1,600 signatures. Until the mid-1980s, part of this area was home to the old Nerja waste dump, which has since been restored.
The technical document, drawn up by the Malaga-based architect José Seguí at the request of the landowners, GI Investments S. L., presents a proposal for the urban transformation of this area, with “sustainability criteria and the distribution of green spaces in the planning” for the development of the aforementioned 964 homes, of which 386 would be social housing (VPO).
Pedestrian bridge
Both banks of the Barranco de la Coladilla would be linked by a pedestrian bridge, “so that the connection does not cause major changes to the ravine itself. This indicative plan complies with all the minimum standards for facilities, social housing, public car parks, local green areas and general systems, even re-equipping the neighbouring residential areas,” the technical study explains.
The planned urban transformation project does partially affect the archaeological area of the cave, as it mentions that the plot is part of the SUNP RDT developable land sector. However, the document specifies that a no-building line and the boundaries of the cave’s surroundings will be established “to protect its integrity”. The developers admit that the urbanisation proposal “must meet sustainability criteria and take care of the natural environment, taking into account the heritage importance of the Nerja Cave”.
The estimated investment for the urban transformation of the Barranco de la Coladilla is around 19.2 million euros. The breakdown included in the document is 9.7 million euros for the physical construction of the main infrastructure and roads and 6.2 million for connections to manis electricity and water.
The estimated time frame for the planning and execution of the project sets a period of seven years for the completion of the planned development. From then on, the execution would take another five years, meaning that the development project would take more than a decade to become a reality.