The main ‘limiting element’ to the growth of construction is the sewage treatment plant, according to the studies of the charge.
The town council of La Massana has suspended the granting of new building permits for a period of one year. Nor will permission be granted for the allocation of plots of land and new developments. The decree can already be consulted in the BOPA. The reason for the moratorium is the launch of the drafting process of the new revision of the POUP. The proposal was approved unanimously. The minority councillors accepted the majority’s willingness to work together on the new urban planning regulations.
As the councillor major, Eva Sansa, explained in the press conference following the town council, the studies of maximum capacity show that the main ‘limiting element’ to urban growth is the sewage treatment plant. ‘The problem is that there is a bottleneck,’ he said. In order to find a solution, it would be necessary to install a collector with greater capacity. Another point highlighted in the studies is the drinking water network. Sansa recalled that in the last mandate the council approved a plan of measures for the next 15 years to make the drinking water distribution system more efficient. ‘Although various interventions have already been carried out and the engineering plan is well advanced, the creation of new catchments is a lengthy process, which involves one and a half years of work’, he pointed out.
With regard to the principles that will guide the new review, the councillor assured that they will not include drastic measures such as the declassification of land that could previously be built on, a proposal that the landowners’ association in Ordino has been fighting for. However, he stressed that urban growth «must be limited» in order to correct the «excessive» trend of the last two years.
The last revision of the POUP dates back to 2016, so in 2022 — after the minimum six years required by the Llei del sòl — the municipality could have carried out another one. Sansa explained that the municipality preferred to wait in order to adapt the new regulations to the maximum load studies.
On the other hand, the plenary session of the council gave the green light to the installation of photovoltaic panels on the gondola lift bridge. To finance the project, a credit supplement for an amount of around 28,000 euros was approved. The councillor in charge of the Works portfolio, Kevin Poulet, explained that this action is a continuation of the communal sustainability plan, approved in the previous term of office. Poulet also recalled that in 2023 the community had already installed photovoltaic panels — more than 300, occupying a total surface area of some 1,000 square metres — on the Fontetes and La Closeta roofs.
Another point approved in the session, in this case as a matter of urgency, was an extraordinary appropriation of 355,000 euros to stabilise a slope on Carrer del Bedre de Guiem, in Erts: ‘A sidewall has been detected and, although at the moment the state of the slope is not critical, we want to anticipate possible damage’, explained Poulet.
At the start of the council meeting, Marc Call, the head of the Pal quarter, was sworn in. This completes the swearing in of the oaths of office of the different quarters, who were sworn in at the previous council meeting.
