The Plan, the last frontier of urban pressure

PalmaYears ago, looking out the window from an airplane, Mallorca appeared patchy at night. The patches of light from Palma, the airport, and the coast contrasted with a discontinuity of dark spots. The largest one, besides the Tramuntana mountain range, was El Pla. The considerable extensions of fertile land without residential use kept the last frontier of urban expansion on the island in the dark.

Today, more than 10,488 houses light up every night in the countryside in this region, dismantling that idea of a pristine and agrarian rural space. More than 10,488 constructions that confirm the relentless transformation of the last reserve of agrarian landscape and genuine activity in Mallorca.

The data comes from the study by researcher Miquel Rosselló Xamena Houses that do not exist, presented at the round table What Pla do we want tomorrow organized by Pla XXI in Lloret de Vistalegre, and dedicated to urbanism and planning. The data corresponds to a 2024 census, and therefore, the current number is already higher. Urban transformation has not been uniform in Mallorca, and El Pla has been the last place where urban pressure has spread, years after it had denatured most of the island's coastline. A significant part of the constructions on rustic land in the region took place between the late 90s and the early 2000s, when a good part of the coast had already experienced deep urbanization.

This temporal lag has turned El Pla into a space where pressures that previously manifested in other parts of Mallorca converge. Rosselló Xamena identifies therein, in part, the latest wave of the metropolitanization of Palma, residential expansion, the arrival of tourism, constructions potentially contrary to urban regulations, and large villas associated with the purchase of properties by foreigners. To all this, another phenomenon has been added: the appearance of sub-housing on rustic land linked to the housing crisis. "All these phenomena mix in El Pla and converge in a geographical space that still has a certain will to be a territory that works and cares for agricultural land," facts that make El Pla "a most interesting element for thinking about planning, not only for this region, but for the entire island," he points out.

The Pla preserves an agrarian activity that coexists with these new land uses. Furthermore, one of the region's particularities is that, unlike the Serra de Tramuntana, it does not have generalized territorial protection.

The pressure has moved to the interior

“For many, the Pla is Mallorca's reserve, our sentimental landscape and the one that endures the most ethnologically”. This was stated by Antoni Alorda, jurist and former president of the Balearic Commission for the Environment. However, he points out, “all the context mechanisms are reaching the Pla and even in terms of planning we have become outdated, because in the context there are things as important as cultural leisure dynamics, residence, the arrival of the free movement first of Spaniards and then of Europeans, foreignness... Everything that at a certain moment arrived in Palma and on the coast, has now arrived here”. In this sense, he pointed out how tourist platforms have also changed the rules of the game. “At one point it was being considered how we should attract inland tourism, and now we think how lucky that we only partially succeeded.”

It is true that the Pla de Mallorca has grown less than other areas of the island, but, nevertheless, it has not remained on the margins of the transformations. The island director of Urban Planning, Maria José Frau, also sees a change in demand. “Before, it was all about going to the coast, but now islanders and foreigners are looking for the interior of Mallorca,” she stated. “We don't have the sea, therefore, we haven't grown as the rest of the island has grown,” summarized the mayor of Maria de la Salut, Jaume Ferriol, during the meeting. The region has avoided hotel construction, but this does not mean it hasn't changed. “We cannot stop growth, but we must set our senses to see what type of growth we need and how it should be done”.

The deputy mayor of Ariany and president of the Mancomunitat del Pla, Joana Maria Pasqual, considers that the region still preserves a village identity and a territory less transformed than other parts of Mallorca. This makes planning there especially important. “The planning must allow for living in the villages and for them to be economically sustainable without this economic exploitation affecting the urban planning and the environment”.

But the margin for growth also clashes with the availability of water. “If we increase much in population, as of now it could not be assumed,” warned Pasqual. The mayor of Maria agrees, who asserts that “no matter how little we grow, first of all we must fix this problem. If we don't remedy it, we will indeed have to stop”.

To this limitation is added a housing crisis that is already affecting the young people of the region. “It is not acceptable that in order to buy or rent they have to leave their town,” warns Pasqual. Buying pressure from foreigners has driven up prices, while many houses that were previously for sale now disappear from the market in a few days.

20 years to approve some regulations

The demand for housing, the interest from outside buyers, and the pressure on water resources are forcing most of the municipalities in El Pla to decide what growth they want to assume and within what limits. The difficulty is that, currently, many are still processing plans begun two decades ago, when the reality was very different.

The speed of these changes contrasts with the municipalities' capacity to update their planning. Maria City Council has been working since 2006 on the revision of the Subsidiary Norms without yet having managed to approve them definitively. Over two decades, according to the mayor, more than one million public euros have been allocated to it.

The problem is that the reality being regulated is no longer the same as it was when the studies were prepared. The municipal documentation is based on 2022 data, when Maria had about 2,200 inhabitants. Currently, it already exceeds 2,600. In four years, the town has gained nearly 400 residents and the houses and available plots have practically disappeared from the market. “Private initiative will always be ahead of the public sector,” lamented Ferriol, who questions to what extent a plan that has required 20 years of processing will be able to respond to current needs.

In Ariany, the process presents similar difficulties. The deputy mayor and president of the Mancomunitat del Pla explained that the municipality has also been trying to update its planning since 2006. This case shows to what extent the needs of the towns have changed. In 2006, the City Council suspended licenses to prevent multi-family buildings in the face of pressure from developers. 20 years later, the Council is considering acquiring a plot to build public housing of this same typology.

“What seemed like an aberration to us back then, is now a necessity,” acknowledged Pasqual. The lack of affordable housing for young people has forced a reconsideration of decisions that were made at the time to preserve the town's urban characteristics.