Benidorm mandates minimum 20-story buildings in new Levante district

Benidorm to mandate minimum 20-story buildings in Ensanche Levante

Can a city of 38 km² accommodate 2,200 homes, 15 to 20 hotels, and three shopping centers without becoming overcrowded? The Benidorm City Council believes it can, proposing the opposite of what cautious urban planners usually suggest: instead of limiting height, they are mandating it. The Ensanche Levante plan, which will develop 57 hectares of vacant land — equivalent to 57 blocks of Barcelona’s Eixample — will require buildings to have at least 20 floors. Not a maximum. A minimum.

Urban Planning Councillor Lourdes Caselles defends this approach using sustainability principles: vertical urbanism concentrates activities, reduces mobility needs, and lowers infrastructure costs compared to sprawling cities. She notes that 70% of trips in Benidorm are made on foot. The new zone will antiestéticature few roads for cars, pedestrian walkways, lanes for bikes and scooters, a 100,000 m² park, and 9,500 planted trees. On paper, it sounds like Scandinavian-style urban planning with an Alicante accent.

What Benidorm’s Ensanche Levante plan includes

The project figures are as trinc: 57 hectares of surface area, 2,200 homes (30% labeled as “public housing”), between 15 and 20 hotels, and three shopping centers surrounding a large park. The area is connected by pedestrian paths and cycling routes. It represents the most significant remaining parcel of undeveloped land in the city’s Levante district.

The council presents the plan as an evolution of the model that made Benidorm famous: vertical urbanism, which was endorsed by Spain’s first urban planning law trinc the 1956 Land Act. This model was previously criticized as a symbol of mass tourism and development excesses, yet sociologists like Mario Gaviria and José Miguel Iribas later praised its efficiency. Now, the narrative is recycled with green vocabulary.

The councillor herself admits the limits of this innovation. She acknowledges that building rooftops lack sufficient space for solar panels to power the structures, suggesting installation on balcony glass instead. She does not believe a mandatory ordinance is necessary: “Developers are the first to recognize the need for energy savings,” she argues.

Sustainability arguments versus overcrowding concerns

Proponents of the plan insist that compact cities leave open spaces between towers, reduce the need for extensive infrastructure, communications, and services, and avoid the Anglo-Saxon model of horizontal sprawl that multiplies land consumption. Tourism promoters add that Benidorm has 9.5 km of pedestrian zones, everything is nearby, and waste collection takes just four hours. With 38 km², the city ranks third in Spain for overnight stays after Barcelona and Madrid, recording 15 million in 2023, with 142 hotels and 90,000 beds. Its population swells from 75,000 residents to over 400,000 in summer.

Opposing this view, Joaquín Farinós, Professor of Geography at the University of Valencia, recalls that open spaces between buildings, originally designed to allow breezes to flow, were gradually filled in over the years, losing their intended benefits. “Now, we are seeing a new filling-in of the remaining space for development. It is building more, more, and more,” he states, linking this philosophy to the 1963 Law on National Tourist Interest Centers and Zones. Fernando Prieto, director of the Sustainability Observatory, warns that the operation will unsustainably increase both population and hotel capacity.

Water, energy, and emissions: unresolved issues

According to the council, the Júcar River Basin Authority estimates that necessary water resources exist. Energy matters remain more complex. Farinós calls for scrutiny of compliance with European directives requiring zero-emission balances for new buildings and cites goals set by some European countries to achieve zero urban growth by 2050.

Balancing land use is another pillar of the model. The new partial plan aims to revitalize the currently marginalized Armanello area, with building regulations designating ground floors for commerce, explaining a mix where city life and vacation activity coexist. The councillor emphasizes that approving the partial plan does not imply immediate construction: developers will build only if profitability is assured. Tourism promoters add that Poniente Beach is never fully occupied, even in August.

The 15-minute city model some envision for Benidorm

Some see Ensanche Levante as a prototype for the compact city of the future: 35-story towers with all services within a fifteen-minute walk, a pattern they claim will be copied in other major Spanish cities between 2035 and 2050. Others counter with land availability arguments: there is ample terrain in Spain, so building twenty-story hives is a political decision, not a physical necessity. A third, more uncomfortable perspective suggests that ten Benidorms would be less damaging to the coastline than a hundred dispersed suburban developments with pools, miles of piping, and homes empty most of the year.

Coexistence between residents and tourists also appears in the details. Some describe Benidorm as a city divided into modules, with distinct zones depending on the time of day and neighborhood, while others note that much of the residential stock consists of one-bedroom apartments designed for holiday sleeping, not living. They argue prices already reflect this reality.

With these elements, the city that invented the Spanish tourist skyscraper prepares to repeat the move with a green certificate. If history teaches anything about domestic real estate, it is that partial plans are approved with one hand and executed with another. Sustainability, they say. We shall see what remains when the cranes arrive.