In 1998, the government team of the City Council of Valencia publicly presented the Special Project for the Protection and Interior Reform of Cabanyal Canyamelar with two main objectives, “The regeneration and revitalization of the maritime neighbourhoods and … to connect Blasco Ibáñez with the sea”.

In practice, this project meant extending the Avinguda Blasco Ibáñez through the Cabanyal without taking into account the protection of its historical heritage as a Bé d’Interés Cultural. The extension with an extension of 148 meters, 48 destined to roads and the rest to the construction of buildings of five floors in height, implied the destruction of 1621 houses, most of them declared of “special protection” and the displacement of all those affected.

Against these plans, in 1998 the citizens’ movement was organized around the Plataforma Salvem El Cabanyal – Canyamelar – Cap de França (Save El Cabanyal – Canyamelar – Cap de França Platform). That same year, in December, the first edition of Cabanyal Portes Obertes will be held, a project of artistic interventions with the objective of making visible the social and urbanistic problems. Finally the city council, after a long social conflict and in the courts that plunged the neighborhood into a deep degradation, forced by court rulings and social pressure, abandons the PEPRI.

In 2015 the new government team of the City Council of Valencia is committed to develop a rehabilitation plan for the Cabanyal respectful of its historical and social values and its heritage, which belongs to all Valencians.