In the complex landscape of urban planning in Gran Canaria, where environmental protection and established rights often clash, the Las Salinas del Matorral settlement has just cleared a critical hurdle. The Environmental Assessment Commission of San Bartolomé de Tirajana has issued a favorable Strategic Environmental Report for the minor modification of the General Plan (PGO), a step that brings the regularization of this rural settlement closer after decades of legal limbo.
The agreement, adopted on January 22nd and made public in mid-February, and to which Maspalomas24H has had access, confirms that the zoning plan proposed by the Matosal and Los Salineros residents' associations will not have significant environmental impacts. However, the ruling is not a blank check; it is a technical balancing act that must overcome the reservations of the central government and the new demands of the climate crisis.
The chronicle of this case reveals the usual frictions between different levels of government. The Ministry of Defense, whose presence in the area is strategic given the proximity of the Gando Air Base and its easements, has maintained a bureaucratic stance of caution. In a document bordering on a warning, the Ministry of Defense requested more time to analyze the impact, indicating that any lack of a timely response would be considered unfavorable.
This administrative "noise" forces the City Council into a delicate maneuver: continuing with the process but linking final approval to a Defense report that is still pending. It's the classic legal architecture of the south: moving forward on solid ground, but keeping an eye on Madrid.
Beyond land ownership, the report introduces a variable that will shape urban planning on the island in the coming decade: climate risk analysis. The Canary Islands Government's Ministry of Ecological Transition has been adamant in demanding that, in later phases, the project incorporate specific climate projections—using the Canary Islands Climate Atlas—and not merely regional generalities.
For a settlement located on rural coastal land and classified as "potentially productive", vulnerability to sea level rise or extreme thermal events is no longer an academic suggestion, but an imperative requirement for the validity of the plan.
What distinguishes this case from the large hotel developments in Meloneras is its origin. The developer is not a large tourism group, but rather the Salinas del Matorral Residents' Association itself. It is a bottom-up urban development project that seeks to integrate an already heavily developed and degraded environment into the existing legal framework of the 1996 General Urban Development Plan (PGO).
The resolution from the Commission, headed by Secretary Mateo Pérez, now grants a four-year period to complete the modification. If the Matorral's new legal framework is not approved by 2030, the clock will reset. In southern Gran Canaria, where administrative time tends to move more slowly than the economic cycle, this agreement is, above all, a victory against time.
