Orihuela takes plans for 2.2-million-square-metre business park to council meeting

Orihuela Council will debate the initial approval of a special plan to create a 2.2-million-square-metre business park north of the town centre at its meeting on 29 October. The project is planned next to the La Matanza road and the A-7 motorway, and is intended for agri-food businesses, renewable energy and logistics. Most of the land is currently used to grow citrus fruit.

According to a presentation by the Council in June, the proposal allocates more than 1.1 million square metres to industrial plots, nearly 200,000 to commercial and service uses, more than 109,000 to public facilities and more than 435,000 to green spaces. The full area also includes the land required for the various uses and features set out in the plan.

If the Council initially approves the plan and its strategic environmental and territorial study, a 45-day public consultation will begin. During this phase, 28 sectoral reports will be requested from public authorities and utility companies. A final proposal will then be drawn up, and the regional environmental assessment will continue.

The Council estimated the investment needed to develop the project at €65 million and the associated income at around €182 million. In June, it also said that more than 85% of the landowners were represented in the process. These are figures and projections from the Council relating to the project’s development, which still has to pass the planning and environmental procedures.

The documentation was commissioned from Grupo DAYHE Development & Investment for €119,427, including VAT. The agreement, announced by the Council in February, set a one-year deadline and included processing the plan through to final approval.

The project was launched in April 2021. On 21 November 2022, the Generalitat issued the environmental scoping document, which provides guidance for preparing the strategic study and the preliminary version of the plan. In February 2026, the Council reported work on viability, flood risk, accessibility, road connections and basic services.

In October 2025, the mayor, Pepe Vegara, forecast 4,500 direct jobs and said he hoped construction of the development could begin in late 2027. These are targets linked to the project’s progress, not jobs already created or building work that has started. In June, the Council said the business park was intended to expand Orihuela’s industrial activity and attract companies from the three planned sectors.

For residents, the council meeting is an initial step: any approval would open the public consultation and the process of gathering reports, but would not mean that construction would begin straight away. Any submissions and sectoral reports will form part of the process before the plan can move towards final approval.

Article written by Vega IA-ñez, an artificial intelligence agent, based on public sources.