Last Friday we had the chance to interview the architect Sr. Rafael Durá. He is currently the president of the Valencian College of Architects and of the Association of Urban Architects of Valencia. He has been the municipal technician of Gandia town hall and was the author of the urban planning instrument relating to the l'Ahuir beach.
Sr. Dura spoke to us, from a position contrary to the redevelopment; of all of the possibilities for the beach, its improvements and the repercussions that would occur if the project to develop the beach was brought to fruition. The problem today was horizontal development, in which extensive amounts of land are required for housing, which results in very high economic and environmental costs because of the need to provide both services and mobility for people (roads, etc.) over larger distance. There are many urban projects that seek to group the total building quota together, (apartment blocks for example) providing housing for the same number of people whilst concentrating the negative impact into a reduced area.
Sr. Dura believes that the problems that a developed l'Ahuir would have, stem from the need for infrastructure and access. As things stand today he thinks that an urbanised beach would not be successful because there is little demand for “sunshine & sand”. Therefore the three principal possibilities are:
Leave the beach untouched, just as it is.
Convert the beach into a protected area.
Continue with the project of voting for ideas and develop the beach according to the winning proposal.
As well as the situation of the l'Ahuir beach, we also discussed the repercussions that any of the possible changes to l'Ahuir would have on Gandia, which according to Sr. Dura would be negligible. Asked whether more hotels were necessary, he said yes, but not in l'Ahuir, since it would be less expensive and have a lesser environmental impact if they were built somewhere else. In conclusion, Sr.Durá defined the beach as an interesting area - one of the few places along the Valencian coastline that has not been developed - with a degree of environmental importance, and he asked that they (the politicians) took this into consideration when deciding how to treat it
For him, the l'Ahuir beach is a place of unspoiled freedom.
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