A Master Plan for a large education and sports complex called “Fasouri School” is now before the relevant authorities. The Fasouri Academy and Sports Hub, in the municipality of Kato Polemidia, would include three school units covering all levels of education, from kindergarten to secondary school.
Each school would operate as a self-contained unit covering all education levels, pre-primary, primary, gymnasium and lyceum, with modern classrooms, science laboratories, libraries, and art and music facilities.
The Master Plan also includes a sports centre featuring a multi-purpose indoor hall, a gym, and basketball, squash and padel courts. It would also have football and tennis pitches, a swimming pool, an athletics track, and supporting facilities such as rehabilitation areas. The sports facilities would, under certain conditions, also be open to the wider public, supporting physical education, sport and recreational activities in the area.
According to the study, the project would be developed on 307,844 square metres of usable land and would serve 4,500 students with 145 teaching and administrative staff. It provides for 643 car parking spaces and 57 bus spaces.
The company is seeking town planning approval for the Master Plan as a whole, which would form the basis for separate town planning and building permit applications for each individual development. Behind that approval process lies a more contested question: the same land earmarked for the complex also carries environmental sensitivities that have become the project’s most debated issue.
The proposed development occupies environmentally sensitive plots covering a total of around 360,000 square metres. The point generating the most debate concerns the area’s planning status. Under the British Bases’ planning policy statement, the plots fall within Planning Zone Z1 (Protection Zone), a strictly protected zone intended to preserve archaeological sites, areas of natural beauty, forests, protected landscapes, geological formations and rivers or streams. A smaller section falls within the boundaries of the Republic of Cyprus, in Agricultural Zone (Ga2).
A total of 10,707 trees, mainly cypresses, mandarin and pomegranate trees, were recorded on the plots. Of these, 7,083 are set to be felled: 4,309 pomegranate trees, 2,774 mandarin trees and rows of cypresses. Only 3,624 fruit trees would be retained. As a compensatory measure, the planting of 2,800 new trees is proposed: 1,738 cypresses, 689 pines and 373 urban vegetation trees.
The area around the project is already undergoing rapid development. Within a one-kilometre radius, Fasouri Watermania, My Mall Limassol and City of Dreams Mediterranean are already operating. Studies are also pending or under review for nearby projects, including the Limassol Greens Golf Resort by Lanitis Golf, and large residential developments by Emerland Real Estate, Brightbuild Properties and AN Sky Garden.
