Villa Amalia Plan Cuts Tower Heights by Up to 30% in Revised 455-Home Proposal

Plans to complete the Villa Amalia development in Torrevieja have been revised, with building heights reduced by around 25% to 30%, blocks cut from 16 to eight and homes moved further from the N-332.

The proposal, now open to public consultation for 45 days, concentrates 455 homes and 27,283 square metres of buildable area in two large plots inland from the highway. It retains the sector’s maximum of 925 homes but removes residential use from the road-facing plots closest to the N-332. The developer says the change does not increase the sector’s total residential building capacity.

The revisions respond largely to plans to widen the Torrevieja bypass. The original Partial Plan, approved in 2005, did not incorporate the future road project. The city approved an urbanisation scheme in 2008, but the Highways Department raised objections in 2010 and sought further information on public land, building lines, drainage and noise.

The road-widening project was drawn up in 2020. Its route takes part of the planned green buffer and brings the highway closer to western residential plots. The new proposal transfers rights from three plots, which had been assigned 146 homes and 8,804 square metres of buildable space, to two vacant plots further inland. One plot would accommodate 258 homes, up from 175; the other would hold between 134 and 197, compared with 134 previously. Together, they retain the same 455 homes and buildable area formerly spread across five plots.

Rather than cover more than half of each plot with lower buildings, the plan proposes eight blocks, provisionally four on each plot. One would rise to seven floors, including ground level, and 24.5 metres; the other to six floors and 21 metres. The final number of buildings has not been fixed. The planners argue that lower buildings would require a denser footprint, reducing open space and views through the development.

The Coastal Authority called for building heights and volumes to fit the surroundings and avoid obstructing views or creating excessive visual barriers. It did not prescribe a specific height reduction. The revised plan responds with more space between buildings and an expanded landscape assessment, which uses the desalination plant as a local reference point. The authority has separately challenged plans for high-rise towers on Torrevieja’s seafront.

Highways officials have also required the future building project to detail noise barriers or earth mounds, including their position and dimensions. Plans must specify a stormwater retention basin and demonstrate that it can work with the existing pumping station and road drainage to manage runoff. The issue is significant: the area around Ramón Rubial Street experienced flooding, including during storms with a 100-year return period, before the pumping station was built.

The amendment also clarifies a 3,347-square-metre plot as primarily hotel use, correcting what the planners describe as an error in the 2005 plan. Hotels, aparthotels and tourist apartments would be allowed, with commercial use complementary and a two-storey, seven-metre height limit.

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