Definitive plans for Parc de Sa Riera revealed

Joan Collins ARCHITECTS Manuel Ribas Piera and Marta Gabas yesterday presented the novelties planned for the future Parc de Sa Riera (known popularly as Falca Verde). Also present were three Palma councillors: the deputy mayor of Town Planning, Javier Rodrigo de Santos; the deputy mayor of Infrastructures, Marina Sans; and the President of the Municipal Society of Parks in Palma (SMAP), Alvaro Gijon. Ribas and Gabas mentioned the “leisure” function of the future park, and highlighted that, among other novelties, there will be a space of 3'000 square metres, distributed over two areas, designated as a children's play area. In one of these areas, of 2'000 square metres, there will be an exact reproduction of Bellver Castle. This will be to scale and built in the form of a children's game. The extension of the so called Zone B of the new park, which will be inaugurated in December this year, will be of some 120'000 square metres. There will also be an ornamental fountain of 1'300 square metres and 81 streams in which it will be possible to bathe. Also, a space of 6'000 square metres will be dedicated to sporting activities, which will include a football pitch with artificial turf, basketball courts, and five a side football courts, as well as a skateboarding area of 800 square metres. In addition to this there will be three service buildings, two more than originally planned. Two of these will have bars and terraces. Also, there will be an area of 3'000 square metres for pets, 250 more trees will be planted which will make a total of 2'500 trees, and the green area will increase from 6'400 square metres to 11'400 square metres. De Santos said that a lot of the novelties being introduced “were the fruit of citizen participation”, referring to the poll which was done between February and April this year during the celebration of the April Fair. This highlighted that the people wanted a “safe”, “educational” and “integrated” park, but above all “for the small children”. The park will cost 25 million euros, 10 million over the original budget, due to the improvements to the original project.