The Torrevieja City Council is one step closer to approving the construction of the urbanisation of La Hoya Sector-20 , which will includes 7,490 homes on 1.8 million square metres with a capacity to house 18,000 new residents, an equivalent size to the current population of Rojales.

Other than a number of small front-line plots, it is also the last parcel of major developable land that remains in the municipality of Torrevieja.

The urbanization is to be built on the land delimited by the CV-905, the La Siesta urbanization, the perimeter of the natural park in the La Mata lagoon, the Quirón Hospital, the International Auditorium, el “camino de las cabras” (the path of the goats), which will become one of the main roads in the urbanization, and the residential areas of Jardín del Mar.

Included in the project, which was announced at a press conference on Friday by councillor Federico Alarcón, there will be a pedestrian walkway over the N-332 (275,000 euros) and a bridge next to the IES Mare Nostrum (1,400,000 euros). There is also a forest restoration project next to the natural park valued at 450,000 euros and another flyover in the vicinity of the Quirón Hospital costing a further 650,000 euros.

There will also be a commercial area of 103,000 square metres just flanking the CV-905 between the current Jardín del Mar-Doña Inés urbanization and the La Siesta urbanization .

Environmental groups such as Amigos de los Humedales del Sur de Alicante have warned of the enormous environmental impact, not only because of its proximity to the natural park, but also because it fails to achieve the current sustainability criteria