Elche Proposes Opening Shops on Two Easter Mondays and Modifies Its General Plan

The Local Government Board agreed on Thursday to establish the Sundays and holidays open for commercial activity in Elche during 2026. Additionally, it has requested the Ministry of Industry, Commerce, and Tourism to modify the regional calendar to highlight certain dates of special significance in the municipality, such as Good Friday or Easter Sunday.

According to spokesperson Inma Mora, it is proposed to replace openable days on April 3 and 5, corresponding to those two Easter holidays, with April 6 and 13, which coincide with the first and second Easter Mondays. Furthermore, it is proposed to disable August 15 and October 12, enabling instead Sunday, August 16, and Sunday, October 11, respectively.

With these adjustments, the commercial calendar for 2026 will include days linked to the Epiphany campaign, winter and summer sales, accumulation of holidays, and the Christmas campaign. The selected dates allow, according to the spokesperson, "to adapt the opening to the real needs of the commercial sector and make it compatible with respecting festivities of strong social and tourist roots in the city."

In the same session, the Local Government Board approved the project for specific modification No. 46 of the General Plan of Elche, corresponding to Article 169, in order to allow the increase in the number of floors in high and medium-density developable land sectors.

The objective is to enable open building models that include taller buildings with less ground coverage, promoting the creation of broader urban environments with larger green areas, without altering the total buildability of the plots. The technical report states that this modification will not have significant effects on the environment or on natural or cultural heritage, as it only affects areas where urban transformation has not yet been completed.

The maximum heights allowed in each urban planning key, after the modification, will be eight floors in high-density residential areas, seven in medium-high, four in medium-low and in medium-density tourist areas, as well as six floors in high-density tourist areas.

Finally, the project for specific modification No. 47 of the General Plan was approved, which contemplates the change of endowment use in sector E-15. The plot delimited by Vicente Antón Selva Street, Paseo Oftalmólogo Fernando Soler, Pintor Juan de Juanes, and Miguel Miralles Jorge will change from educational-cultural use to sports-recreational. This change will allow the implementation of the new Puertas Coloradas sports area, an equipment that, according to Mora, "responds to the need to expand and improve sports spaces in the neighborhoods and serve a growing neighborhood demand."