Calling-off Rabasa could affect Ikea

THE Valencian Community’s Upper Courts of Justice (TSJ) have cancelled Alicante city’s Rabasa development. Constructor Enrique Ortiz’s project would have brought 13,000 homes to the desolate area on the outskirts of Alicante.  It has now been annulled in two separate verdicts.

The first centred on the project’s numerous planning irregularities. The second verdict upheld a further appeal against the conditions under which the development contract was awarded. 

It also drew attention to failures in guaranteeing a water supply for another 30,000 inhabitants. Uppermost in the city council’s mind is the Rabasa Ikea.

“It’s all the same to me if the project is annulled or not, it’s Ikea that worries me,” said Alicante mayor Sonia Castedo.  She does not intend to appeal against the TSJ verdict, she added.

She repeated earlier offers of ceding land to Ikea anywhere in the city. These were first made after the TSJ provisionally suspended the Rabasa project in 2009 pending appeals.

Ikea is still interested despite the TSJ decision and still hopes to open in Rabasa if planning issues can be solved, city hall sources revealed.