NEW GENERAL URBAN DEVELOPMENT PLAN FOR LA LÍNEA
Location: La Línea de la Concepción, Cádiz.
Author: José Seguí Pérez. Architect ESTUDIO SEGUÍ
Project date: 2021
Promoter: La Línea de la Concepción Town Council.
The work on the “Avance” document of the General Plan and its Catalogue is presented to the Municipal Plenary on 8 November 2018, submitting it to the collective reflection and debate of its contents based on an important programme of public participation. Subsequently, the Initial Approval Document is drafted, approved in the Municipal Plenary on 10 October 2019, with its corresponding Public Information process, and whose results are included in the following phase of Provisional Approval which is approved in the Municipal Plenary on 14 January 2021, being exposed to Public Information in order to boost its administrative processing in accordance with the regulations.
The main objective of the General Plan of La Linea has been to analyse and load its future opportunities by means of specific strategic projects capable of boosting the economic and social development of the city, qualifying its planning and urbanity. Its strategic position as a border city located between two seas (Atlantic and Mediterranean) and as a connecting link between three neighbouring territories (Rock of Gibraltar, Bay of Algeciras and Costa del Sol), places it in a privileged position to promote its future urban developments. Therefore, the new General Plan could be defined as a “Plan-Project” with the capacity to specify strategic actions capable of becoming a reality through effective management. In this way, it is an important public initiative which, under the auspices of the City Council, will try to solve its main problems through a selection of “strategic projects” that will improve the urbanity of the city and its economic and social improvement.
These will be projects that will shape the radio-concentric Road Structure of the city, with the incorporation of the “North Axis” and the new “North Ring Road”, strengthening the current Avenida de Cartagena with the reorganisation of its Coastal Promenades (West and East) and the “Middle Road” that will solve the permeability and road continuity of the proposed developments for the Historic Centre and the Residential Extensions, resolving the planning and management problems of the existing ones to opt for a “compact” model of growth of the city. The new Collective Facilities that will also act as structuring elements of the urban activity of the City, such as the new “Municipal Stadium”, the coastal promenade of the “Fortification of Santa Barbara”, the Park of the new “Ferial”, the “Airport Centre”, the Socio-Cultural Centre of “Junquillos”, the “West” Park, the “New Sports City”, the “Agricultural Park” of Zabal, the redevelopment of the “Puerto Atunara”… as well as the important bets on the sectors of the “Zabal” and the necessary protection of the soils of the “Litoral de Levante” and “Sierra Carboneras” as important references of the landscape of the City.
0 – THE NEW PLAN
The new General Plan could be defined as a “Plan-Project”, capable of specifying strategic proposals that qualify its urbanity and boost the economy and social improvement through an efficient management that makes it a reality.
A set of actions that consolidate the strategic position of the city and generate opportunities for its future urban developments.
1 – THE LOCATION
La Línea, a “border” city between two seas (Mediterranean and Atlantic) and “hinge” of three territories (Gibraltar, Bay of Algeciras and Costa del Sol).
Gibraltar with its “economic” influence and reference of the city’s landscape with the front of the African continent (Morocco).
The Bay of Algeciras as an important “industrial” centre on a territorial scale adjoining La Línea.
The Costa del Sol with its powerful “tourist” offer, where La Línea can play an important role as the head of its coastline.
2 – THE STRUCTURE
The road model with a “radio-concentric” structure is consolidated with the creation of the “Eje Norte” and the new “Ronda Norte”, which, together with the reorganisation of the Avenida de Cartagena, Paseo Marítimo (Levante and Poniente) and the “Viario Medio” of the urban developments, consolidate its structural model.
The redevelopment of the Paseo Marítimo de Levante, conserving its road sections and incorporating its lateral pedestrian walkways facing the sea and the built-up areas to qualify its urban image.
The new “Eje Norte” as the main structuring road element of the city, consolidating the historical axis defined by the Plaza de la Constitución – Plaza de Toros.
3 – THE PROJECTS
The “Strategic Projects” of the General Plan as reference proposals for urban activity in the city.
3.1. New Municipal Stadium, located in the same footprint as the old football stadium, with a complementary proposal for recreational use that refurbishes the front of the Santa Bárbara promenade, integrating the adjacent Sports Pavilion and Municipal Swimming Pool.
3.2. Paseo de Santa Bárbara, incorporating the archaeological remains of the Fortification and creating a pedestrian promenade along the coastline connecting the new Stadium, the Trade Fair and the Airport Centre.
3.3. Parque del Ferial, adjoining the Princess Sofía Park, will become a multifunctional public space for collective activity due to its close location with respect to the urban centre of the city.
3.4. Airport Centre, on the municipal land adjoining Gibraltar Airport and the Port of Alcaidesa, with hotel and tertiary uses as an important offer of productive activity for the adjoining settlements of Gibraltar, Algeciras Bay and the Costa del Sol.
3.5. Socio-Cultural Centre “Junquillos”, rearranging the municipal land of the current market and schools adjacent to Junquillos to create a new “urban centrality” of socio-cultural and residential character capable of socially qualifying the neighbourhood and enhance its urban activity.
3.6. West Park, which is based on the new “Ronda Norte”, integrating the residual railway land for possible reuse.
3.7. Developments of the North Axis, as an important residential proposal for the city adjoining the Zabal and Tertiary uses with the industrial areas of the Zabal Industrial Estate, which will enable the main road infrastructures required by the Zabal settlement to be built.
3.8. New Sports City, which completes the sports uses of the new Stadium with the athletics track and various football pitches and sports centres to complement the sports uses next to Avenida Cartagena to serve the new residential developments.
3.9. Zabal Agricultural Park, to recover the historical agricultural traces of this irregular settlement of Zabal, proposing its redevelopment and integrating it into the city with attractive innovations in its collective spaces such as these “Urban Gardens” that make up the Zabal “Agricultural Park”.
3.10. Paseo Litoral Levante, integrating the facilities located in the green space of the 50 metres of the coastal line of the Public Maritime Terrestrial Domain in front of the “La Campana” housing development and its protected dune beaches, which can be accessed from the coastal pedestrian promenade.
3.11. The redevelopment of Zabal is one of the Plan’s major commitments to incorporate this irregular settlement into the structure of the city, guaranteeing the necessary balance of burdens for its urban enhancement and the development through its historic paths and the transversalities of the “green wedges” linking the areas of the Sierra with the coastline.
4 – URBAN EXTENTIONS
It is committed to a model of “compact” extension, consolidating the existing sectors with new developments adapted to the model of the Plan. The Sectors of Land for Development have a total land area of 1,119,980 m2, with a programme of 5,922 dwellings and a land area of Open Spaces of 189,636 m2, with a contribution of General Systems Equipment of 195,675 m2 of land.
The aim of the new residential developments has been to fill and rearrange the unfinished spaces of the city in order to consolidate the proposed “compact” growth and the urban structure of its roads and facilities that give it its urban form.
5 – URBAN LAND
The new General Plan proposes a firm commitment to the requalification of the Urban Land and its Historic Centre, by means of specific actions that make the management and development of its urban development problems possible.
5.1. The “Historic Axis” formed by the Plaza de Toros – Plaza de la Constitución, which has its continuity in the new “North Axis” consolidating this important historic axis of the city.
5.2. Redevelopment of public spaces such as the area around the Plaza de Toros and various other road elements.
5.3. “Interior Reform” and “Ordinance” actions in the different plots and typologies of the “inherited city”, facilitating the management of their development through the different planning instruments.
6 – PROTECTION
6.1. Catalogue of Protection of its architectural elements as a way of enhancing the value of its Historical Heritage.
6.2. Protections for the use of the dune beaches of Levante, proposing wooden access walkways to protect the formation of dunes that characterise these beaches.
6.3. Protected Areas of the Litoral Levante and Sierra Carbonera as soils of high landscape and environmental value that make up the territorial landscape of the city.