The Levante UD sports city, which today received the green light from the Council of Ministers, is included in the initiative of the Special Plan for the South Zone 1 of Natzaret in which the Port of Valencia has made 230,000 square metres of port land available to the citizens.
The president of the Port Authority of Valencia (PAV), Aurelio Martinez, stressed that “this action, along with others such as the ZAL, will activate the economy of the area and create jobs”.
According to data from the City Council, the Natzaret neighbourhood has unemployment rates above 50%.
The Council of Ministers has given the green light to the new Levante U.D. sports city to be located in the area that the Port of Valencia has made available to the city of Valencia within the framework of the Special Plan for South Zone 1. A project that will provide the Natzaret district with new green areas and open spaces on port land for public use, and will revitalise the surrounding area, favouring the creation of new jobs.
The PAV, the City Council and Levante U.D. have been working on this project for more than 10 years, although it was only in the last few years that it was taken up again with the strength demanded by the parties. For the head of Valenciaport, “the initiative that has been approved today forms part of a much broader scope. In the port-city commission of Valencia created by the Board of Directors of the APV and chaired by the Mayor of Valencia to analyse the needs of the city, it was concluded that the idea already included in the 2013 agreement signed between the City Council and the Port Authority to create an area between Natzaret and the Port that would provide the neighbours with a green, pleasant and dynamic environment had to be promoted; an idea that was also included in the PGOU; and that is now materialised. This is a very important news for the Port, for Natzaret and for Valencia”.
The result is the Special Plan for the South Zone 1 of the Port of Valencia or Natzaret East Plan, an action that will provide the neighbourhood with new green, tertiary and sports spaces. A new green lung and a multifunctional area that will reinforce the social and urban fabric of this neighbourhood, and will act as a dynamizer of the economy, one of the initiatives that Valenciaport is carrying out to dynamize the Port environment within the framework of the port-city interaction.
The PAV has welcomed the approval by the Council of Ministers of this initiative, which is part of a much larger project of 230,000 square metres that “the Port of Valencia has made available to the citizens of Valencia, one of the most important port-city interactions ever carried out by a port in the Spanish port system”, explains the president of the PAV, Aurelio Martínez.
An action which has a very important component for this area of the city: employment and economic activity. “Valenciaport has always had the objective of making this area more dynamic and promoting the creation of employment. The Special Plan or the Logistics Activities Zone (ZAL) have this fundamental component for Natzaret: employment. A neighbourhood that, according to data from the City Council itself, has an unemployment rate of 50%. Everything that generates activity around Nazaret is positive”, says Aurelio Martínez.
The Special Plan for the South Zone 1 of the Port of Valencia contemplates five major actions between the Port and the Natzaret neighbourhood on port land.
Area 1. Desembocadura del Turia Park
Configured downstream of the Astilleros Bridge, it includes the new park of the structural development and the old Turia riverbed.
Area 2. Tertiary Use
Located approximately on the site of the former ARLESA facilities, it is intended for tertiary use and, where appropriate, also for public use.
Area 3. Sports facilities
Sports and open space area. This sports facility partially occupies the existing green area to the south (Natzaret South Park) and represents the recovery of the site of a sports facility, a green border between the port activity and the Natzaret neighbourhood, and also a centre for the promotion of uses and activities linked to leisure and sport.
The planning arranges this area, a priori, in two different urban plots in order to facilitate its management and subsequent execution.
The first plot occupies practically the entire area and its main purpose will be to house open-air sports facilities. The possibility of locating buildings linked to the main use, as well as other auxiliary support constructions, is foreseen. The ZV-DP use plot contains the building protected by general planning, the “Benimar” building, which is included in the Inventory of joint buildings and elements of architectural interest in the municipality of Valencia. The sports facilities planned to be included in this area will have to carry out the refurbishment work on the Benimar building.
The second plot will be for the location of an indoor sports facility.
Area 4. Marblau facilities
The development plan incorporates the existing facility located in Algemesí Street, currently in operation, managed by the Valencia City Council through a concession for use as a youth centre, popular university and museum of the huerta in the old Marblau spa.
Area 5. Natzaret South Park
Green area located at the southern end.
Green corridor
The Plan also includes a green cycling and pedestrian corridor linking the Desembocadura Park with the current corridor that, running through the Logistics Activities Zone, connects with the areas of La Punta and Pinedo, with the aim of improving the continuity and dimensions of the green corridor that surrounds Nazaret to the northeast, linking all the maritime settlements from La Malvarrosa to La Punta and Pinedo. This cycle lane will have a minimum width of 2.50 metres, separated from the road and the pedestrian area.