Horta de Sant Joan

Can you build a house on rustic land?

Catalonia allows no new houses on rustic land. Restoring an existing or listed building is the way.

DL 1/2010, art. 47. A town plan can be stricter.

Plan in force: Normas Subsidiarias (an older, simpler plan), from 1989. The region's planning viewer ↗

The national urban information system (SIU) maps the land class for 100% of the municipality.

Only the town hall can confirm it, in writing: ask for a certificado urbanístico.

Is there water?

IGME records 7 wells and boreholes in Horta de Sant Joan. Half of the 7 with a depth found water at 18–135 m. 4 springs are recorded.

Ground: 27% karstic or fissured aquifer, high productivity; 20% porous aquifer, high productivity; 20% low permeability, local groundwater only; 13% practically impermeable; 12% porous aquifer, medium productivity; 8.4% karstic or fissured aquifer, medium productivity.

Choosing where to drill takes a hydrogeologist.

What to watch for

• No mapped fire since 2016.
• No mapped flood zone (only studied rivers are mapped).
• 62% of the municipality is Natura 2000: new works need the region's consent.
• 62% of the municipality is a protected natural area, whose plan limits what can be done.
• Not a radon zone.

Living here

• 4G reaches 100% of homes; fibre 86%. Averages for the municipality.
• Rain: 483 mm a year (1971–2000), about 412 by 2041–2070.
• Summer highs: 27.9 °C, about 31.6 °C by 2041–2070.
• Frost days: 20 a year, about 9 by 2041–2070.

Around it

Lledó · Paüls · Arnes · Prat de Comte · Alfara de Carles · Arens de Lledó · Bot · Caseres