The long-standing urban planning limbo in El Salobre is about to end. After years of community activism, the Environmental Assessment Commission of San Bartolomé de Tirajana has issued a favorable report for the Minor Modification of the General Plan (PGO) for the Lomo Los Pajaritos-Barranco del Negro settlement. This agreement, officially published this Wednesday, provides institutional support for regularizing a community that until now existed on rural land, finally recognizing it as a consolidated and permanent population center.
Before the matter was even addressed, Maspalomas Golf, SA, a company jointly owned by Lopesan and the Bravo de Laguna family, objected due to specific planning elements, suggesting a conflict of interest regarding the organization of the adjacent land and access routes. The Ministry of Defense also objected, although it later changed its stance to "conditionally favorable," obligating the City Council to subject any construction to military oversight due to the easements of the Gando Air Base. There is no outright opposition claiming environmental destruction, but rather a struggle over the limits of the urban development plan: who is included in the new plan and how the new roads will affect powerful landowners like Maspalomas Golf.
The decision by the Municipal Environmental Authority is based on a simplified analysis that concludes the zoning plan will not have significant environmental impacts. Since the area is already "anthropized"—that is, where human activity has already transformed the landscape—the experts believe that regularizing existing housing and organizing future growth will not harm the environment, provided that noise, waste, and air quality control measures are respected during construction.
However, the green light is not a blank check. The Ministry of Defense has set clear boundaries: the area is subject to the aeronautical easements of the Gando Air Base. This means that any future construction, antennas, or even the use of construction cranes will require specific permission from the Ministry. Furthermore, Public Health has imposed strict conditions to ensure that the neighborhood's development does not negatively impact the well-being of residents, closely monitoring traffic and water pollution.
The conclusion of this process is a strategic victory for the El Salobre Residents' Platform Association, which promoted the initiative. The agreement not only brings order to the land but also restores legal certainty to the families in the area. The City Council now has four years to finalize the authorization before the report expires. With this step, San Bartolomé de Tirajana begins to settle a long-standing debt with its inland neighborhoods, integrating El Salobre into the official municipal map under a model of orderly growth.
