The San Bartolomé de Tirajana City Council confirmed to Maspalomas24H this Thursday that it has formally initiated the process to regularize the urban planning of the rural area of La Media Fanega, a consolidated agricultural settlement between Montaña La Data and El Salobre, which until now had been excluded from official population maps. On March 10, the municipality's Environmental Assessment Commission agreed to open the Simplified Strategic Environmental Assessment process, a key step toward the legal inclusion of the area in the General Urban Development Plan.
The proposal affects an area of rural land where the Chamoriscán Ravine and the La Negra Ravine meet, along the well-known road to Palmitos Park. Currently, there are approximately 19 homes within the delimited perimeter and another nine in the immediate surrounding area, which, according to the 2017 Canary Islands Land Law, allows for its classification as an agricultural settlement.
La Media Fanega is not yet listed among the population centers listed by the Canary Islands Statistics Institute (ISTAC), despite its layout reflecting organic and sustained growth over time. The lack of prior planning has resulted in a fait accompli urban development, with residents organized around the AVEMEFA association, which is now actively promoting this Minor Amendment to the General Plan.
The drafting team, led by architect Ana Kursón Ghattas of Kurson Architecture Consulting, was responsible for putting this neighborhood's aspiration to be recognized by the planning process into practice. The project falls within the current regulations of the 1996 General Urban Development Plan (PGOU), although it is part of a broader trend toward regularization of rural enclaves following the Territorial Planning Guidelines and subsequent legislative reforms.
With this process, San Bartolomé de Tirajana not only recognizes a housing situation that has been hidden until now, but also aligns itself with the legal obligations to properly manage its rural territory. At the same time, a new chapter of dialogue opens between the administration and citizens to define the limits of growth and the coexistence between agricultural and residential areas.
