The phenomenon of illegal residential parcellings in andalusia: General significance and approach in regional territorial plans

Abstract

In the urban dispersion processes that have taken place in Andalusia in recent decades, the extraordinary growth and proliferation of illegal housing has played an essential role. Mostly, these houses take the form of semi-urban settlements of a very diverse nature that are developed in violation of the current legal framework and outside planning. It is undoubtedly one of the great social, territorial and urban challenges that regional and local administrations have been facing for several decades. From this general perspective, the analysis focuses on the specific phenomenon of illegal residential parcellings, as an essential-though not exclusive-part of such proliferation. With this aim in mind, the attempts to quantify and evaluate the phenomenon by the regional administration and the way in which it has been approached in the specific territorial planning policies applied since the last decade of the nineties are analysed in detail.