Hot on the heels of an announcement by property developers Taylor Wimpey to build an new 4.2 million euro development in Marbella, came the opening of the final stretch of the Casapalma-Coin road, which links Guadalhorce township with Coin. Marbella's urban landscape is changing rapidly, but in the case of the A-357 it took 23 years to mature into reality.
While British developers Taylor Wimpey bill be constructing their 24-home project in the Marques del Duero part of San Pedro de Alcantara, other parts of the Marbella coastline are also to see excellent investment. Town planning councillor Isabel Perez stated in a recent interview that investments in the region of 46.7 million euros had been earmarked for the area, which would involve largely residential property projects in Greater Marbella.
Numerous setbacks were responsible for delaying the Coin road project for such a long time. The project was first under discussion in 1992, but lack of development funds and perhaps lack of enthusiasm for development in the neighbouring towns surrounding Marbella meant that the new A-357 fell years behind in construction.
Located strategically between Malaga and Marbella, the A-357 route has already prompted businesses currently based in either one of the two cities to relocate to Coin, where commercial real estate is cheaper. The established roads from Cártama or Villafranco del Guadalhorce were not in a good state of repair and didn't have an impressive safety record either, which prevented businesses to consider relocation to Coin.
With the new road communities occupying the valley can access Coin directly from the A-357 without the need for their lorries to pass through Cártama, which will potentially improve business overall in the area.
For commuters and semi-resident tourists the travelling time from Marbella to Malaga has also been shortened drastically. Both cities can now be reached within 20 minutes, great news for anyone conducting business also, since Malaga and Marbella are the tow largest commercial hubs at the Costa del Sol.
Measuring just 5.5 km in distance, the new Coin road cost 16.62 million euros to build. Given the popularity of Malaga's new art collections and museums though, the road couldn't have come at a more convenient time. Just the Pablo Picasso Museum in Malaga alone has seen such a boost to its visitor numbers this year that next year's budget was raised to 4.3 million euros to allow for further growth in the art tourism sector.
Linking Marbella and Malaga Communities
While the travelling time between the two business communities has undoubtedly be shortened and should lead to more businesses opening up in Coin, one group of residents are less than impressed. The new road design has cut off pedestrian access between their Sierra Gorda homes and a nearby shopping centre, making each trip of grocery shopping a hazardous undertaking.
There is now no way to cover the 900 metre stretch to the La Trocha shopping centre on foot, residents of the Sierra Gorda residential area say. La Trocha provides those living on the outskirts of Coin with shops, a cinema and cafes. The road design includes a roundabout that provides access to the new road, but makes no provision for pedestrians needing to cross over from one side of the carriageway to the other.
Given the 23-year delay, it is "mind-boggling that they have been planning this road since the early 1990's but nobody thought to include a way for pedestrian to cross", complained Sierra Gorda resident Jill Leonard in a recent interview with SUR in English magazine.
The only safe way of going shopping or socialising at La Trocha shopping centre is now by car, since the 23-year planning didn't include coming up with a bus service either. Worse still, residents who got in touch with local councillors were told there are no plans to launch a bus service or provide pedestrian access, although they promised to look into the possibility of building a pedestrian bridge over the new road. Coin residents might be forgiven for wondering if that will take another two decades to come to fruition.