The Long Road to Completing the Coastal Path of Marbella

Conceived as one of the most ambitious projects of the municipality, the Marbella Coastal Path faces various obstacles to its completion, especially in the Las Chapas district. The cumbersome administrative processing of the actions to enable the different sections of the walkway; the lack of sufficiently large spaces on a coast that tends to lose sand during the winter and spring storms; and the presence of various constructions at a short distance from the sea make the connection of the 27 kilometers of the municipal term, from Cabopino to Guadalmina, one of the most prolonged actions over time. The City Council currently has up to five pathway section projects in different phases of processing in Las Chapas, which together add up to about 1.2 kilometers in length in a municipality in need of leisure and recreation spaces to compensate for the congestion suffered by large urban centers, especially the center of Marbella and San Pedro Alcántara. The City Council is awaiting authorization from the Coastal Demarcation, an entity belonging to the central government, to execute a 260-meter long pathway section in the vicinity of El Realejo stream, with an investment of more than one million euros. The Council has a project in the study phase - which will later have to be submitted to Coastal Demarcation for approval - to enable a section of about 320 meters in length near Sequillo stream; while at the Nikki Beach club, a section of about 175 meters is being executed. The project to enable a 130-meter long walkway in the vicinity of Las Cañas stream is "practically finished," according to the delegate of Works and Beaches, Diego López, while also on the coast of Las Chapas, there is a project under study to develop another 260 meters of pathway in the Las Nereidas area. However, the City Council lacks a temporal horizon around which the different sections of the walkway can be opened to the public. "They will be in the coming dates," states the delegate. A year ago, the City Council announced the opening to the public of the network of trails near the Real de Zaragoza stream, consisting of various wooden walkways that cover nearly a kilometer of surface and wind between a dune cord of about 123,000 square meters. The project to execute this section of the coastal path, which had an investment of 510,000 euros mostly from the European Union, sparked controversy between the City Council and the Government Sub-delegation. The City Council accused the central government of blocking the project. The Government Sub-delegation responded that the walkways planned by the City Council ran through areas not enabled for this according to Coastal regulations. The City Council corrected the routes to comply with legality and resumed the actions, while Coastal Demarcation withdrew a contentious-administrative lawsuit it filed against the municipal project in 2021. "Legality must be respected and not try to confuse the citizens," requested the Government Sub-delegate, Javier Salas.