The Department of Climate Action has issued a Resolution in which it warns that it is necessary to submit the new Vial Nord de la Platja de Pals to an ordinary strategic environmental assessment. Pals City Council approved the modification of the General Plan for the construction of a new road by subjecting it to a simplified environmental assessment, but Climate Action opposes it, due to the environmental impact of this project.

On 26 May 2022, the Municipal Council of Pals initially approved the partial amendment to the General Urban Planning Scheme for the Vial Nord road system at Platja de Pals, to build a new road connecting the Grau beach area with the C-31, crossing agricultural fields, pine forests on dunes and a high-value floodplain area where rice is usually grown.

The City Council expects the route of this road to cross the Vernegar Pond, a fragile wetland ecosystem of rice fields, partially protected by the Partial Natural Reserve, which in 2010 was incorporated into the Natural Park. Further south, the route crosses an agricultural area, “Ecological connector, a conflict axis for connectivity”, according to the Partial Territorial Plan for the Girona Counties, and the forest zone of Northern Rodors, which are a habitat of community interest Priority (HIC*) 2270 "Dunes with pine forests of stone pine or stone pine", which the 1986 Plan planned to urbanize, until the Generalitat, in 2021, with the Urban Master Plan for non-sustainable soils, protected and declassified it, to prevent it from being urbanized.

This road will affect an area of faunal interest delimited by the presence of the European lynx, a species at risk of extinction in accordance with Decree 172/2022, of 20 September, on the Catalogue of Threatened Native Wildlife and on Measures for the Protection and Conservation of Protected Native Wildlife.

In a joint report, the Section of Biodiversity and Natural Environment and the Montgrí, Medas Islands and Baix Ter Natural Park, of 4 October 2022, consider that the road project must be subject to the ordinary environmental assessment procedure, questioning the need for the bypass and seeking alternatives that would less affect connectivity with the natural park and protected species, such as the European hill (Stink badger).

According to this unfavourable report, the lynx is one of the least known and most threatened carnivores in the Catalan fauna. It is estimated that it has disappeared from 80% of its former distribution area over the past 40 years. At the same time, it is one of the most frequently road-killed carnivore species on Catalan roads, a problem also observed in other parts of Europe. In some areas where other causes have severely affected populations, road-killing may have contributed significantly to the species' more pronounced decline. Most of the Catalan records from the last 20 years are of specimens hit by vehicles in the area. The only remaining European badger population in all of Catalonia with short-term viability prospects is located between the lower stretch of the River Ter and the Gavarres massif.

According to the report, the traditional, semi-naturalised agricultural landscape of this part of Empordà must be preserved and maintained, taking into account the ecological needs of the hill.

The’Catalonia Water Agency (ACA) questions the alternatives proposed by the Pals town council for the new road, both for affecting the water body of the lake and for impacting the preferential flow zone and the floodplain. As for the approved road alignment, it concludes that it cannot be accepted because it intercepts the water body of the lake. Low Empordà Marshes – Basses d'en Coll (DMAH code 0160400), defined in the Management Plan for the Catalan River Basin.

As for the alternative route proposed by the City Council, it indicates that it partially occupies flood-prone land during flood events associated with 100- and 500-year return periods due to the Ter River's overflow, and considers that it occupies the… the preferential flow zone and the floodable zone as defined in Articles 9 and 14 of the Hydraulic Public Domain Regulation. Therefore, it is necessary to analyse the potential alteration of the hydraulic regime and determine the impacts it could have on the risk conditions of the land adjacent to the area covered by this alignment.

The’Girona Naturalists' Association indicates that the Council does not delve into the necessity of the new road, nor its possible consequences for the environment or people. It considers that the impact of the new road on ecological connectors, areas of natural interest and the Natura 2000 network justifies the need to keep any infrastructure or development at the Jonquers of the Vernegar pond at a distance, and the need to subject any road and development to a full Strategic Environmental Assessment, as the current municipal planning for Pals has never been subject to any environmental assessment.

The reports concur on the lack of necessity and the need to seek an alternative away from the pond that would reduce the impact on connectivity, highlighting that the road would have a significant environmental impact, resulting from increased mobility in the peripheral and coastal areas of the Natural Park and the Natural Reserve.

On 19 October 2022, the director of the Girona Territorial Services of the Department for Climate Action, Elizabeth Sanchez, has issued an unfavourable resolution in that the new road has significant direct negative effects on connectivity due to increased vehicle traffic, and indirect effects due to increased visitor numbers and the heightened risk of wildfires. These effects can occur along the entire route, but also due to the accumulation of vehicles on the beaches included within the Natural Park, and calls into question the need to extend the road to Avenida del Grau, as this is incompatible with the preservation of the area's environmental values and requires the General Plan amendment to undergo a full Strategic Environmental Assessment.

A Flawed Procedure

The Town Council gave initial approval, submitting the file to public consultation and receiving numerous objections from residents and organisations, but according to the Generalitat this procedure is not legal and a new process must be initiated, as it had been erroneously subjected to a simplified environmental assessment.

To construct the road, the City Council will have to draw up a new alignment away from the wetlands, reducing the impact on biodiversity and existing habitats, with a strategic environmental assessment, which will aim to define and evaluate the actions necessary to carry out the road construction project and assess the need for the road.

A Struggle That Goes Back a Long Way

The 1986 General Plan provided for the construction of the Vial Nord to reach a 462-hectare residential marina similar to that of Empuriabrava from the main C-31 road, with a capacity for 6,000 people and a nautical port with 2,000 berths in the “Les Illes” area, north of the present-day Camí de les Illes, a habitat of exceptional natural value with marshes, rice paddies, mangroves and dunes that formed part of the Vernegar lagoon. The planning was partially halted thanks to the rulings of the Superior Court of Justice of 28 February 1990 and the Supreme Court of 23 April 1996, which require the Town Council to amend the planning to protect the lagoon from development and keep it free of infrastructure.

The Vernegar pond area to the north of the path was protected by the General Plan, but according to the chronicler of Pals, Narcís Subirana, “The Pals Town Council, in drafting the 1986 General Plan, interpreted these rulings in a self-serving manner, as if only the part of the Vernegar pond that lies north of the present-day Camí de les Illes needed to be protected, but the rulings refer to Law 12/1985 on Natural Areas, which established a definition of wetland in Catalonia, based on that given by the 1971 Ramsar Convention, and therefore, the entire pond should be protected, including the part that lies south of the path, preventing it from being crossed by any road such as the Vial Nord.”, which according to Subirana, “It has an aggressive route through the territory..”

Law 12/1985 on natural areas stipulates that wetlands in Catalonia, such as this lake, must be preserved from activities liable to cause their degradation, and this infrastructure and any development around the lake should be kept at a distance..

The SOS Costa Brava federation welcomes the decision by Climate Action and the Natural Park, as “it is very important to keep any road and any development away from the Partial Natural Reserve of the Baix Ter Marshes, which is also a Special Protection Area for Birds (SPA), a Site of Community Importance (SCI) and part of the Natura 2000 network, and we believe that the Natural Park should be expanded to include the entire Vernegar pond and the floodplain south of the Camí de les Illes..”

The construction of this road will be the first step towards developing the wetland known as “Els Jonquers.” at Pals Beach, which was classified as urban land by the 1986 General Plan, but which also forms part of Vernegar Pond., to build a large high-rise building of 6,000 m² for hotel and commercial use, and that in the revision of the Plan initially approved in 2015, 34 dwellings and a 2,417 m² car park were added, and the Rodors forest area, as provided for in the 1986 planning scheme, to build numerous multi-family high-rise buildings, with nearly 600 new homes intended as second residences, to the sectors now intended for urbanisation of Rodors 1, 2 and 3, Paratge Rodors, Pineda de Pals, Interpals and the giant dune, covering nearly 30 hectares of priority Community interest habitats, which are absent elsewhere along the Catalan coast..

Below is a summary table of the buildings that the planning proposals provide for construction within the forest lands of great environmental interest, classified as priority habitats of community interest (HIC*), which are located directly opposite the ecological connector, the PEIN Muntanyes de Begur and the Partial Natural Reserve of the Aiguamolls del Baix Ter, with a very negative impact on the Natural Park, in order to build 579 new second homes and a hotel and retail complex and two large car parks: the pine forests on the dunes in Rodors (26.86 hectares) and the Vernegar lake wetland (1 hectare). Specifically, the 1986 planning, after the declassifications of the PDU of unsustainable soils on the Girona coast (2021), still foresees the "declassification and qualification with possible recovery" of 8 new housing developments on Pals beach.

And it is that the Parliament of Catalonia approved a Resolution on 26 October 2016 urging the Government to “To initiate the necessary procedures to protect the Rodors sector at Pals Beach by expanding the PEIN area, and to adopt the measures required for the effective protection of the dune and pine forest area by the sea, which has a high environmental value.”Following complaints from numerous landowners and environmental organisations about the massive clear-felling of the Rodors pine forests from 2013 to 2016 during Sílvia Monar's term in office, which put this habitat of community interest at risk of disappearing.

The following year, the Ombudsman also issued a Resolution warning that the Generalitat and the City Council must preserve the habitat of the northern rodents.“because it is only found in four locations throughout Catalonia”, as well as the Vernegar Pond and the Jonquers, which the Town Council intends to allocate to hotel services and other economic activities, partly within the existing pond, with a serious impact: “This area and the road are located right on the edge of the Natural Park, specifically just to the south-west of the Basses d'en Coll natural site, which would represent a highly impactful urban encroachment on natural areas of high ecosystemic value..”

On 13 July 2020, Parliament once again approved another Resolution to prevent overcrowding at Grau Beach and the Natural Park that “urges the project to be scrapped Aqvam project on Radio Liberty”which had forecast 250,000 visitors a year and “to develop projects compatible with environmental values”.

According to Marisol Perea, former councillor on Pals Town Council for the PSC, “For many years we have opposed the construction of the Vial Nord, both the section that has already been built under former mayor Joan Silvestre and the remaining stretch, because we believe the route needs to be altered to move the road away from the Natural Park..”

According to Perea, “Years ago we received the project behind the diversion of the current path, which is a new high-rise commercial and hotel development and a large car park next to the Coll ponds, and therefore we believe it is not the most suitable place to do so, because no study has been carried out into the impact on the commercial establishments on the other side of the beach, from Masos to Mediterranean Avenue, and it's not just the economic impact, but above all the environmental impact”Perea warns that a new town plan is needed for the entire municipality, as the current one dates from 1986.“We need to sit down, analyse and calmly debate where the village of Pals wants to go with such outdated planning..»

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Download the press release for this article here.

We recommend reading the following articles on this blog so that you can expand on the details and gain a better perspective on the impact of the New North Vial on Pals Beach.

Between 15,000 and 20,000 tonnes of uncontrolled waste at Pals

We exchange biodiversity for debris

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The Pals Marshes

The before and after of these wetlands

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Article creation date: 28/11/2022.

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