Sixty luxury homes, 18 swimming pools and countless storage rooms and garages in Sa Pedruscada, one of the few places that still resist the pressure of urban development in Mallorca. This is the project that TM Group plans to promote in the coming months, considered one of the construction centers of the Valencian Community, in a place near the fishing port of Cala Ratjada, a former refuge for artists and intellectuals and today a coveted destination for German tourism. And all this in the midst of the unstoppable increase in real estate market prices, the massive purchase of homes by foreigners with high purchasing power in the Balearic Islands and the accelerated process of degradation that is expected to worsen in the coming years due to the impact of climate change. “The project completely changes the appearance of the place and is going to harm us a lot”, complain several residents of the neighborhood, who have joined their voices under the platform “Salvem sa Pedruscada”.
The people affected, who have been residents of the area for decades, have also launched a petition on Change.org, in which they warn against the urban speculation of the new project, which, they denounce, will lead to a land use intensity “radically different” from that of all the plots surrounding it, which requires its revision. The request of the residents has so far accumulated more than 4,400 signatures.
“Those of us who live in the neighborhood are not rich, we are workers and they are going to bring us people with houses worth more than 800,000 euros. The project is a beast,” said one of the members of “Salvem sa Pedruscada”, Carlos Loshuertos, in statements to elDiario.es.
Suspension of permits for more than two heights
The development company had initially planned the construction of 18 blocks of buildings that could reach four heights. The Subsidiary Standards (NNSS) of Capdepera allow for a buildability and heights greater than those of the rest of the plots in the area, until, as this resident of the area explains, those affected obtained last December, through the architect Mateu Carrió, that the City Hall – governed by an unprecedented pact between PP and the eco-sovereignty of Més – suspended for one year the permits for buildings of more than two floors, also proposing an increase in horizontal buildability from 30 to 40%, with the aim of possibly stopping the compensation that could arise from the suspension.
According to Loshuertos, the builders have given their approval to the proposal and have made it known to the City Council, which, he assures, “is behaving very well”, but stresses that the construction company “has not yet presented the new proposal”. The municipal corporation avoids making any statements on the matter, while the developer, TM Group, tells elDiario.es that it is waiting to obtain authorization soon to begin construction of this residential project, located, they specify, “on land considered urban according to the urban planning regulations of Capdepera and which has taken into account the environmental and landscape aspects of the area.
Last year, the PSPV-PSOE denounced that TM, whose advisor is Pablo Serna Lorente, whose family fortune grew during Franco’s developmentalism and the boom real estate on the Costa Blanca, has closed a deal worth 20 million euros in Benidorm, a city governed by the popular Toni Pérez, successor to Carlos Mazón at the head of the Provincial Council of Alicante. All this, according to the socialists, to the detriment of the construction of sheltered housing. Serna inherited the family business TM Group with his four brothers in 2012 and in 2020 he was among the 200 richest people in Spain and number 11 in the Valencian Community.
In 2005, the TM Group, which on its website TM Grupo Inmobiliario declares itself “committed to the creation of economic, social and environmental value” to promote “sustainable residential and hotel tourism”, landed in Mallorca and, among its main developments, the island, include the luxury residential complexes La Luz de Cala Ratjada and La Perla de Sa Coma. “Luz de Cala Ratjada by TM is an exclusive residential complex of semi-detached villas and bungalows designed by and for you in one of the most exceptional areas of the island such as Cala Ratjada”, announces the company about the first of the developments, whose homes have been put on the market with prices ranging from 910,000 to 1,145,000 euros.
Today, the company wants to expand its activity to its Pedruscada, taking advantage of the fact that the area is considered consolidated urban land with building rights, as reflected in the NNSS of Capdepera, approved in 1986. However, the neighbors consider that the project to build 60 homes on a plot of 22,000 square meters “will have a land use intensity radically different from that of all the plots that surround it”, also taking into account “the accelerated effects of climate change and extreme weather events” that have hit, with increasing frequency, the Balearic Islands and more specifically this point located northeast of Mallorca.
“Houses for foreign supermillionaires”
“In the area there are mainly chalets and old low houses and now they want to do this to us,” laments Loshuertos, who explains that last year they decided to unite on a platform to defend a sustainable future for Sa Pedruscada in the face of a project that “seriously damages the environment, seriously compromises its environmental and landscape value, its spaces and natural resources and forever alters the conditions of habitability and coexistence of the current residents of Sa Pedruscada and future generations. At the end of August, the group demonstrated to say “no” to the destruction of the territory.
Other members of the platform criticize the fact that the houses “are not at all intended for ‘normal’ people, but rather for foreign supermillionaires who – those with impaired senses – will buy and resell, or stay here for a few months and put them up for tourist rental. “This is completely disproportionate to what exists,” they say.
For his part, Paco Galián, another resident of the area, explains that the reduction in the height of the planned buildings is the main complaint of the neighbors, since, as published by the magazine Cap Vermell, preventing any construction would have been ruled out. due to the cost that it would entail in compensation. On this subject, the City Council did not respond to the question of this media. According to information from Cap Vermell, the developer would have acquired the land for around nine million euros, “an amount that, if it had to be paid, would mortgage for years the basic services provided by the City Council.”
Meanwhile, on the opposition side in the Capdepera City Council, the PSIB-PSOE opposes the suspension of planning permissions in its Pedruscada for one year, considering it a “misuse of power”, warning of the probable compensations that, they predict, the Consistory will have to face. According to the socialists, the decision was taken “without a technical urban planning report and only with a biased report”, as reported by the local newspaper Última Hora.
From native vegetation to paved floors
In their Change.org petition, the representatives of “Salvem sa Pedruscada” focus part of their demands on the effects that macro-construction could have on an environmental level: “Native vegetation represents a possible and sustainable resource against the increase in temperatures produced by climate change. On the contrary, urban developments and screeds generate what is known as the “heat island” effect. The elimination of all the native vegetation that currently covers this plot and its replacement with houses, apartments and streets means going against all the indications recommended by experts to combat climate change. In addition, the paved and cobbled ground of this plot will no longer be able to absorb and retain water from the intense rains, which are occurring with increasing frequency.
They also point out that the entire area will be demolished and that the intensity of use of the adjacent streets that serve it “will multiply to limits for which they are not prepared due to the large number of homes that will be built.” “The area that was quiet until now will be forever altered by traffic and the noise of cars,” they add.
Those affected point out that currently, the websites that describe the cove of Sa Pedruscada point out that its appearance is reminiscent of a family fishing port, that it is a very clean cove with crystal clear waters and that the entire coast “is available to everyone.” In this context, they criticize the fact that this environmental and landscape heritage “is one that risks disappearing forever”, as has already happened with the neighboring cove of Son Moll, “absolutely submerged with bathers, hammocks and beach bars.”
