The Metamorphosis that has Established Estepona as a Benchmark of the Costa del Sol

A pedestrianized center with restricted traffic over more than 19 linear kilometers; new social, cultural, sports, and health facilities; a commitment to environmental sustainability and energy efficiency; the restoration of historic buildings or the opening of the seafront promenade on the old national highway 340 are some of the projects developed in recent years in Estepona, which have been behind the metamorphosis experienced by this city in a process of transformation and modernization driven by the current mayor, the popular José María García Urbano, since his arrival in 2011 at the City Hall, positioning the municipality as one of the benchmarks on the Costa del Sol.

The latest achievement has been the sanitation of the municipal coffers with the amortization of debt through an economic policy of austerity and efficiency that has run parallel to the enhancement of investments to improve the quality of life of citizens in a management model that has combined modernity with the maintenance of traditions and the promotion of culture and sports.

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Among these investments are projects such as the beautification plan for the center of Estepona with the regeneration of service infrastructures, paving, and revegetation with native and ornamental floral species, which has allowed action on 130 streets and squares covering an area of 70,000 square meters, and where thousands of trees have been planted, leading the city to be known as 'The Garden of the Costa del Sol'. In this line, the Orchid Park was created, which has become an international reference in the field of botany with 3,000 plant species, half of them orchids, and outside of which there is a green lung of 15,000 square meters.

Opening to the sea

In recent years, the city has opened up to the sea with the construction of a pedestrian boulevard that has transformed Avenida de España along almost two kilometers, creating a wide seafront promenade as well as the project of the Coastal Path that will connect the 21 kilometers of coastline of the municipality pedestrian-wise once the last five sections, whose procedures are already underway, are completed.

In this process of urban transformation, projects such as the remodeling of Terraza Street, one of the main arteries of the city's road network, are framed, where priority has been given to pedestrians with the execution of a platform that provides a sense of spaciousness of the urban ensemble and the construction of the Central Park Boulevard between San Lorenzo and Spain avenues that will generate a new pedestrian and leisure space.

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In this boulevard, there is also a planned underground parking for 300 vehicles that will have a cost of 1 euro per day. This will join the four that under this formula are already operational, with 2,000 spaces, within the municipal parking plan. To these will also be added the one that is being built, with 322 spaces, in the surroundings of the El Carmen church and the one planned in La Lobilla.

In terms of facilities, the city has a modern theater-auditorium; a fairground of 70,000 square meters that has 23 sports courts and 22 booths for cultural and social entities; a new City Hall that combines all the municipal dependencies in a single building; and faced with its own funds the construction of the high-resolution hospital for its transfer to the Junta.

Cultural spaces

The Mirador del Carmen Cultural Center, located in a tower next to the sea, has exhibition rooms, a music conservatory, and the Library of Contemporary Cultures. In cultural matters, Estepona has an open-air museum formed by 74 artistic murals that decorate the facades of buildings in different neighborhoods.

The recovery of the environment of the Punta Doncella lighthouse as a space for leisure and enjoyment after more than a century closed to the public and the Castle of San Luis; the construction of the athletics stadium, a rock climbing wall, calisthenics tracks, or the awarding of the construction and operation of the municipality's indoor swimming pool are other actions carried out in this period.

A transformation accompanied by figures such as the increase in population by 12,746 people between 2011 and 2024, placing Estepona as the sixth city in inhabitants of the province; the reduction of unemployment, going from 7,983 registered fourteen years ago to 3,550 last May; or the increase in the number of companies: today there are 6,602, which represents 2,123 more than in 2011, according to data from the INE.

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