The reopening of the Sidi-Saler hotel, in the L’Albufera natural park, becomes complicated when the Court ratifies the expiration of the license. The Litigation Administrative Court number 5 of Valencia rules in these terms concerning the refusal and expiration of the hotel’s business license approved by the Valencia City Hall in 2022: “The appeal filed by the commercial companies Divarian Propiedad SA must be rejected and Coral Homes. » In addition, both companies are ordered to pay the costs.
The judgment, to which elDiario.es had access, rejects the appeals filed by the funds owning the property against the municipal resolutions that established the expiration of the aforementioned license. There is an appeal against the sentence.
The plaintiffs considered in their appeal, firstly, that the public space councilor did not have the power to decree the expiration of the license since it had not been granted by the local government council; secondly, that the establishment’s intention to cease payment had not been proven and that it had not launched the hotel in time due to force majeure; and thirdly, even if it could be considered that the hotel is in a situation beyond any substantial planning due to the excess volume of the building and the place where it is located, such a conclusion must be informed by the competent municipal services . in environmental matters, as well as by the autonomous body responsible for natural parks and the board of directors of the Albufera Park. The complainant also alleged that there was misuse of powers as it was a strategy of the government team to demolish the hotel and that the Covid pandemic would have affected the administrative procedure. All issues raised are dismissed by the court.
The City Council stated, among other things, that since it was indisputable that the activity had been inactive since 2011 and that the companies had communicated in August 2021 the change of ownership of the aforementioned license in their favor, the appropriate thing to do was to initiate a procedure for the expiration of the environmental license granted, granting a hearing procedure to those who obtained ownership, and once it was verified that there was no force majeure which justified the cessation of the exercise of the activity for a period. more than two years, only the expiration could be declared.
In its resolution, the court understands that what is being appealed is precisely the “express declaration of expiration”, a proceeding that had begun on January 7, 2019, well before Divarian’s September 30, 2019 request for obtain an environmental license. for the activity and request for work authorization. It was at that time that the companies informed the Town Hall that they owned the hotel which was in a state of abandonment.
The appellants allege that the intention of non-compliance by Divarian and Coral had not been proven, but the fact is that the expiry period would have expired before the appellants expressed their desire to obtain the license and that the expiry period would have elapsed before this declaration and the start of the declaration file would have already taken place.
The court rules out the existence of a misuse of power by affirming that even if the intention of the government team, then chaired by Joan Ribó, de Compromís, to demolish the hotel is known, it is subject to a legal system which cannot be ignored: “The establishment of a hotel in a natural park necessarily involves a political controversy which can arise alongside the exercise of administrative power. In this case, due to the regulated nature of the content of the administrative act, it did not leave room for its free exercise, so that it is not possible to assess the use of powers administrative measures to achieve objectives other than those established by law,” the judgment said.
In addition to this case, another appeal against the refusal of the building permit is awaiting resolution, which, given this decision, will most likely follow the same path of approving the refusal of the municipal council, which would greatly complicate the idea of the current mayor, María José Catalá, of the PP, to reopen the hotel building.
