Mayors and others trooped off for the meeting with the Council of Mallorca on Wednesday to hear more about the holiday rentals zoning and to make their points. The zoning has become a major issue (something of an understatement), and the Council seems to be doing a little backtracking. Criteria for defining "saturation", and so therefore limiting rentals to sixty days per annum in an owner's main place of residence (i.e. where that owner is registered as living by the town hall), may be modified. There may also be some amendment to the total prohibition of rentals on protected rustic land, something which locally affects outlying areas of municipalities.
The potential backtracking, one suspects, will be only slight. When the Council's PIAT plan for intervention in tourist areas finally sees the light of day - it has acquired almost mythical status - it could be that there is greater restriction. One doubts that there will be less. As previously noted, the same consultancy company which worked on the zoning is coming up with the PIAT. It would be most surprising if the zoning and the PIAT are not very similar.
The Council may, nevertheless, have recognised that the approval of the zoning was only by one vote and also have recognised that certain town halls have expressed strong opposition. There remains, however, a large slice of politics to all this: right versus left. It was, therefore, slightly surprising to hear Pollensa's mayor, Miquel Àngel March, declare on Thursday that Pollensa (the town) is not saturated. He had previously intimated that he was satisfied with this classification. But March, for all his back story as a one-time spokesperson for environmentalists GOB, is doing a reasonable job in being what a mayor should be - a representative for everyone, and so not just of specific ideologies.
March was speaking at another meeting - one at the Club Pollença organised by the Pollensa residents association and led by the holiday rentals association Aptur. He said that, based on objective data, Pollensa is not saturated. These data include water consumption. He also pointed out that 90% of properties currently for holiday rental are legal. These aren't affected by the zoning or indeed by the rentals legislation. They carry on as before.
The mayor added that the town hall will be making its submissions to the Council of Mallorca. One guesses that these will be requests to remove the saturation classification from the town and also La Font and El Vilà. If so, this isn't going to play well in some quarters, not least the Alternativa per Pollença. March is walking a delicate political tightrope. Members of his ruling administration are likely to feel the same as the Alternativa; a couple are from Més, after all, even if the mayor isn't.
March will also have taken note of what the president of Aptur said about elections. The association is making holiday rentals a key election issue. He called on the one hundred or so people attending the meeting to join Aptur, adding that the election results can be influenced.
Hovering in the background, therefore, are ex-mayor Tomeu Cifre's Tots per Pollença. Cifre, it needs reminding, attempted back in 2012 to get the Partido Popular government of José Ramón Bauzá to give Pollensa some special treatment in the tourism law of that year. Cifre understood, as many others did and do, that Pollensa is heavily dependent on rentals. He wanted some adjustment to regulations which might have facilitated more legal renting. He failed, and this was just one reason that he ended up on a collision course with Bauzá that culminated in his leaving the PP and forming Tots.
The reaction of Tots to the Club Pollença meeting was instructive in as much as the party drew attention to March's apparent U-turn in attitude towards saturation. Cifre's group also criticised the town hall administration for not having set up a committee to consider the whole issue of rentals before the Council came out with its zoning plans. Quite what this committee would have achieved is anyone's guess, but Tots are blaming March and the administration for having adopted a "passive attitude".
Tots, in addition to eliminating the saturation classifications, want an increase in the number of rental places available in Puerto Pollensa (and Cala San Vicente). There may of course be an increase, but it is still unclear - regardless of the zoning that enables 365-day-a-year rental in the resorts - what the number will be. The party points that there are, after all, only 30,000 places for the whole island, a number it considers to be "absolutely inadequate". Whatever allocation Puerto Pollensa might end up with, Tots also refer to the fact that these new licences will be subject to renewal after five years. The party suggests that renewals will not necessarily happen, and so therefore there will be "continuous degrowth" of rentals places.
In Alcudia there hasn't been anything like the same amount of noise as that which has emanated from Pollensa. Mayor Toni Mir has said he's not happy with the saturation classification for the town, but he - like March - has his own tightrope to walk. It was perhaps significant that at the Council of Mallorca meeting he was accompanied by Domingo Bonnin, who is from the same party - El Pi, which favours more liberal regulation. Bonnin is the councillor for services. Absent, therefore, were either the deputy mayor, Pere Malondra, or the councillor for tourism and institutional affairs, Joan Vallori. Both of them are from PSOE, and in the case of Vallori, the rentals issue in terms of tourism and dealing with an institution - the Council of Mallorca - would seem to be squarely in his portfolio.
For now, a firm lid is being placed on any discussion in Alcudia.
Showing posts with label Holiday rentals zoning. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Holiday rentals zoning. Show all posts
Saturday, February 03, 2018
Saturday, January 27, 2018
Days Of Renting And Sewage
So then, just so everyone is clear ... Alcudia town, Pollensa town, El Vilà, La Font and Ullaró are saturated. Everywhere else isn't: Puerto Alcudia, Alcanada, Playa de Muro, Can Picafort, Son Serra, Muro, Santa Margalida, Sa Pobla, Búger, Campanet, Crestatx, Bonaire, Barcares, Puerto Pollensa, Formentor, Cala San Vicente.
How on earth do they arrive at such conclusions? No one really knows. They just do. And having arrived at these conclusions, the saturated areas can be eligible to no more than sixty days of holiday rental per annum, licences renewable every five years at the mere cost of 5,000 euros per accommodation place, assuming any licences are eventually forthcoming.
Licences being forthcoming is as much of the issue as all this daft zoning business. It isn't clear how they will be divvied out. I have seen a list per municipality of rental places, but as this list comes to over 100,000 places I have to assume that it is one that takes account of what is already legal (there are only some 30,000 new places on offer). If I'm reading this list correctly, in the case of Pollensa, as an example, there would be some 3,000 going spare. How many of these might end up being apartment places would be anyone's guess. There are hurdles to be overcome, such as communities' rights of veto.
Pollensa's mayor, Miquel Àngel March, has said that he's satisfied with the conclusions. Pollensa is saturated, thus there is the sixty-day restriction. But what was it that March said almost two years ago about problems of accommodation in Puerto Pollensa? I don't know that he is entirely satisfied. Alcudia's Toni Mir isn't satisfied, because the town is deemed to be saturated. The town hall will be letting the Council of Mallorca know what it thinks of this saturation. It won't get very far.
Elsewhere, Sa Pobla's Biel Ferragut is doubtless happy. The town hall has been betting on a favourable rentals outcome in order to boost the Sa Pobla tourism economy. Muro's Marti Fornés hasn't said anything; he's probably keeping his head down, given his historical links to the local hotel industry. Joan Monjo in Santa Margalida, an El Pi man like Mir, has no saturation concerns.
For now, though, it is all a bit of a waiting game. The Council of Mallorca still has its plan to tidy up, and the government has its moratorium to finish. Nothing, it seems to me, is likely to alter this summer. There are too many factors to take account of in facilitating licences, and they will take time to deal with.
While Santa Margalida town, Can Picafort and Son Serra have been given the blue or orange colour-coded all-clear for 365 days a year rental, the town hall is in the process of reclassifying land in Can Picafort in order that some new hotels can pop up. The timing of this, what with all the discussion of saturation (or not), might be considered a little unfortunate. And just as unfortunate is the ongoing row over the Son Baulo sewage and water treatment plant.
A reason why a new plant is needed is that the one in Albufera can't cope with all the additional demand placed on it by tourism. Increased numbers of tourists have meant increased strain on a plant that is considered to be obsolete. Adding more hotels in Can Picafort would simply create even greater problems. Yet Santa Margalida town hall continues to defy everyone and anyone when it comes to the Son Baulo plant.
Muro town hall is now taking the matter to court. Specifically, it wants a legal review of the Santa Margalida decision to unilaterally break an agreement for the Son Baulo plant that was signed in 2005. In a statement, Muro makes clear that at the turn of the century it was already understood that capacity at the Albufera plant was being exceeded. That was eighteen years ago, and nothing has happened.
Adding greater weight to the Muro court case is the decision of the government's Abaqua water agency (the successor to Ibasan, which was the agency that signed the 2005 agreement) to instruct the regional attorney to challenge the Santa Margalida decision. The agency points out that the Son Baulo plant was declared to be in the general interest in 2010, meaning that there isn't a legal obstacle blocking its construction. That's the theory anyway. In practice, eight more years have passed, and the courts are now involved.
How on earth do they arrive at such conclusions? No one really knows. They just do. And having arrived at these conclusions, the saturated areas can be eligible to no more than sixty days of holiday rental per annum, licences renewable every five years at the mere cost of 5,000 euros per accommodation place, assuming any licences are eventually forthcoming.
Licences being forthcoming is as much of the issue as all this daft zoning business. It isn't clear how they will be divvied out. I have seen a list per municipality of rental places, but as this list comes to over 100,000 places I have to assume that it is one that takes account of what is already legal (there are only some 30,000 new places on offer). If I'm reading this list correctly, in the case of Pollensa, as an example, there would be some 3,000 going spare. How many of these might end up being apartment places would be anyone's guess. There are hurdles to be overcome, such as communities' rights of veto.
Pollensa's mayor, Miquel Àngel March, has said that he's satisfied with the conclusions. Pollensa is saturated, thus there is the sixty-day restriction. But what was it that March said almost two years ago about problems of accommodation in Puerto Pollensa? I don't know that he is entirely satisfied. Alcudia's Toni Mir isn't satisfied, because the town is deemed to be saturated. The town hall will be letting the Council of Mallorca know what it thinks of this saturation. It won't get very far.
Elsewhere, Sa Pobla's Biel Ferragut is doubtless happy. The town hall has been betting on a favourable rentals outcome in order to boost the Sa Pobla tourism economy. Muro's Marti Fornés hasn't said anything; he's probably keeping his head down, given his historical links to the local hotel industry. Joan Monjo in Santa Margalida, an El Pi man like Mir, has no saturation concerns.
For now, though, it is all a bit of a waiting game. The Council of Mallorca still has its plan to tidy up, and the government has its moratorium to finish. Nothing, it seems to me, is likely to alter this summer. There are too many factors to take account of in facilitating licences, and they will take time to deal with.
While Santa Margalida town, Can Picafort and Son Serra have been given the blue or orange colour-coded all-clear for 365 days a year rental, the town hall is in the process of reclassifying land in Can Picafort in order that some new hotels can pop up. The timing of this, what with all the discussion of saturation (or not), might be considered a little unfortunate. And just as unfortunate is the ongoing row over the Son Baulo sewage and water treatment plant.
A reason why a new plant is needed is that the one in Albufera can't cope with all the additional demand placed on it by tourism. Increased numbers of tourists have meant increased strain on a plant that is considered to be obsolete. Adding more hotels in Can Picafort would simply create even greater problems. Yet Santa Margalida town hall continues to defy everyone and anyone when it comes to the Son Baulo plant.
Muro town hall is now taking the matter to court. Specifically, it wants a legal review of the Santa Margalida decision to unilaterally break an agreement for the Son Baulo plant that was signed in 2005. In a statement, Muro makes clear that at the turn of the century it was already understood that capacity at the Albufera plant was being exceeded. That was eighteen years ago, and nothing has happened.
Adding greater weight to the Muro court case is the decision of the government's Abaqua water agency (the successor to Ibasan, which was the agency that signed the 2005 agreement) to instruct the regional attorney to challenge the Santa Margalida decision. The agency points out that the Son Baulo plant was declared to be in the general interest in 2010, meaning that there isn't a legal obstacle blocking its construction. That's the theory anyway. In practice, eight more years have passed, and the courts are now involved.
Monday, January 22, 2018
The Colour Purple For Saturated
This consultancy, according to its website, has twenty years experience of environmental and territorial work in the Balearics. One of its commitments is to the protection of the islands - "always fragile and under constant pressure". It has drafted numerous urban plans in Mallorca and Menorca, and indeed it has. GAAT is a very respected consultancy.
But behind every consultancy, might one suggest that there are some politics. One of the two heads of projects is Maria Magdalena Pons Esteva. She was a candidate in Binissalem for Més at the 2015 municipal elections. Politically, the zoning map has been the responsibility of a PSOE councillor at the Council of Mallorca, but it is a map which seems to meet with the approval with the Més president of the Council and with those in Més higher up the political food chain, those in the government.
The politics of the zoning is already evident. The map was unveiled on Friday, and the reaction - at municipal level - shows the obvious disagreements. Miquel Àngel March, mayor of Pollensa, isn't from Més, but he was a one-time GOB spokesperson. He approves of the map, as does Jaume Servera in Soller. He is a member of Més. Servera and March appear content that their "pueblos" have been declared saturated.
Other mayors aren't content. The Partido Popular's Llorenç Galmés in Santanyi fails to understand what criteria have been applied in declaring Santanyi "saturated". I'm unsure what the PP mayor of Binissalem thinks, but then Binissalem is blue not purple, i.e. it is not saturated or a pueblo with major tourism pressure, which strictly speaking is how the purple pueblos are defined. Toni Mir (El Pi) in Alcudia says that "we are not in agreement" with the saturation declaration. By we, one suspects he means El Pi. The PSOE partners plus the chap with Més-type leanings who has the environment portfolio may well think differently to the mayor.
El Pi is the party which has most been to the fore in defending holiday rentals. The PP, one has to say, are johnny-come-lately converts. They never were when they were in government. Opposition is of course a different matter. The government's regulation of holiday rentals has been a "disaster" from the word go. Maybe, but no more disastrous than the PP's was.
While El Pi and the PP do accept that something needs to be done in order to avoid excessive amounts of rentals and problems with housing, they are taking issue with the sixty-day business. Alcudia, Pollensa, Santanyi, Soller: here are pueblos where there will be rentals for no more than sixty days a year, and these have to be owners' main places of residence. Things are different in each of these municipalities' resorts. They are orange and not the colour purple, meaning that they are not saturated and can therefore have rentals that are made available for 365 days a year.
The PP, despite the apparent hypocrisy they are now spouting, given their stance when in government, do have a point when they refer to the "permissiveness" being shown to coastal resorts while there is, at the same time, restriction in many of the pueblos. It is, as Galmés notes, hard to understand precisely what the criteria. At what point does somewhere become "saturated" and according to what rationale? The consultancy presumably knows.
There is an air with this map of some sort of academic exercise. There may be very sound thinking and methodology behind it, but it would be nice to know precisely what. A further point about the map is that it is, for the time being, largely academic. The Council's PIAT plan for intervention in tourist areas has yet to be completed. It may mean some modification of the zones. The Council explained that it was taking the consultancy firm longer than had been expected to finalise the PIAT. And yes, GAAT is working on this as well.
A further academic aspect is that we don't have any idea how the holiday rentals places (some 30,000) are to be allocated. One assumes that they won't be on a first come, first served basis. So the zoning map is for now comparatively bare. At some point, they'll start putting Monopoly-type houses (flats) on it in order to make it complete. Red, purple, orange, blue and yellow houses. Mind-boggling.
Sunday, January 21, 2018
When Bel Went To Madrid
"Now then, Bel, just listen to what I have to tell the hoteliers, and then later, when the press want to hear from us, give them the normal lines about seeking consensus, lengthening the tourism season, diverting tourists away from the summer to the low season thanks to the success of the 'Better in Winter' campaign, redistributing wealth, creating jobs and so on. Have you got that?"
"Yes, I think so, Francina. But are you saying that I shouldn't say anything to the hoteliers?"
"That is exactly what I'm saying, Bel. Look, you may be the tourism minister, but you've barely been in the job a month, which is not enough time for you to have the faintest idea what you're talking about other than spouting the normal nonsense to the press like myself and every other minister."
"Oh, very well, but I thought this trip was going to be my chance to demonstrate what a firm grip I have on tourism in pursuit of sustainability and securing the future of the environment and the wealth of the citizens."
"You may have thought that, Bel, but the hoteliers aren't going to fall for you being even remotely in charge or having a firm grip on anything. If you must, when it comes to the press, you can trot out some percentage of what the tourist tax will cost the typical family of four relative to the total cost of the holiday. Biel used to do that, which would stun them all into silence for a moment or two."
"But I don't know what the cost of a holiday is for a typical family of four."
"Quite. That's why you're the tourism minister. Now, are we ready for the hoteliers?"
"Yes, Francina."
And so, alas poor Bel, who sat round the table, maintaining a respectful silence as the hoteliers trained their eyes only on Francina. But it wasn't all a waste of time. There were the various photo opportunities. Look, there's the delegation from (insert the town hall as applicable), time for a photo with them. Not that Bel was left on her own. Oh no, all the others were in the photos as well. Francina, Cosmic Bonet of the Council, Mercedes of the Council, Mick of the Council, and anyone else they could drag in.
For the town halls, what a splendid event the Fitur fair was. My, how the media drool over all this stuff. "Mr (Ms) Mayor, what is your assessment of your participation at this year's fair?" "It has been extremely positive. A great success." Meanwhile, and out of view, the massive piles of newly printed brochures for cultural tourism in whatever municipality were remaining stubbornly massive.
Although Mick, Mercedes and Cosmic had taken themselves off to Madrid to, for instance, demonstrate how Mallorca inspires culture (about which we heard not a botifarró), they had more urgent, headline-grabbing matters to attend to back in Palma. Yes, the Great Map Of Mallorca's Zones was unveiled, a cartographer's delight of colour coding, each colour designed to strike sorrow or joy into the hearts of prospective owners of holiday rental accommodation.
"Now then, the red zones are ... ?" "They're saturated." "Ok, and the purple ones?" "They're high tourism pressure." "Isn't that the same thing?" "No, red is saturated and purple is high tourism pressure." "But they amount to the same thing." "Well, yes, sort of." "The grey areas - and I'm not referring to the whole thinking behind zoning - what are they for?" "They're industrial estates." "Industrial estates?" "Industrial estates." "Since when have car showrooms been likely holiday rental accommodation?" "Have you looked on Airbnb lately?"
What a fabulous week it was for tourism, but less than fabulous for Bel, whose thunder was stolen in Madrid and then later in Palma when the Great Map was put on display.
Still, we can now expect her to refer to the Great Map when explaining how sustainability is to be assured, how wealth is to be redistributed to the citizens, how the land (our land) will be saved, how jobs will be created ... . What she probably won't be saying is anything about the tourist tax percentage of the total cost of the holiday for a family of four. Where's Biel when we need him?
"Yes, I think so, Francina. But are you saying that I shouldn't say anything to the hoteliers?"
"That is exactly what I'm saying, Bel. Look, you may be the tourism minister, but you've barely been in the job a month, which is not enough time for you to have the faintest idea what you're talking about other than spouting the normal nonsense to the press like myself and every other minister."
"Oh, very well, but I thought this trip was going to be my chance to demonstrate what a firm grip I have on tourism in pursuit of sustainability and securing the future of the environment and the wealth of the citizens."
"You may have thought that, Bel, but the hoteliers aren't going to fall for you being even remotely in charge or having a firm grip on anything. If you must, when it comes to the press, you can trot out some percentage of what the tourist tax will cost the typical family of four relative to the total cost of the holiday. Biel used to do that, which would stun them all into silence for a moment or two."
"But I don't know what the cost of a holiday is for a typical family of four."
"Quite. That's why you're the tourism minister. Now, are we ready for the hoteliers?"
"Yes, Francina."
And so, alas poor Bel, who sat round the table, maintaining a respectful silence as the hoteliers trained their eyes only on Francina. But it wasn't all a waste of time. There were the various photo opportunities. Look, there's the delegation from (insert the town hall as applicable), time for a photo with them. Not that Bel was left on her own. Oh no, all the others were in the photos as well. Francina, Cosmic Bonet of the Council, Mercedes of the Council, Mick of the Council, and anyone else they could drag in.
For the town halls, what a splendid event the Fitur fair was. My, how the media drool over all this stuff. "Mr (Ms) Mayor, what is your assessment of your participation at this year's fair?" "It has been extremely positive. A great success." Meanwhile, and out of view, the massive piles of newly printed brochures for cultural tourism in whatever municipality were remaining stubbornly massive.
Although Mick, Mercedes and Cosmic had taken themselves off to Madrid to, for instance, demonstrate how Mallorca inspires culture (about which we heard not a botifarró), they had more urgent, headline-grabbing matters to attend to back in Palma. Yes, the Great Map Of Mallorca's Zones was unveiled, a cartographer's delight of colour coding, each colour designed to strike sorrow or joy into the hearts of prospective owners of holiday rental accommodation.
"Now then, the red zones are ... ?" "They're saturated." "Ok, and the purple ones?" "They're high tourism pressure." "Isn't that the same thing?" "No, red is saturated and purple is high tourism pressure." "But they amount to the same thing." "Well, yes, sort of." "The grey areas - and I'm not referring to the whole thinking behind zoning - what are they for?" "They're industrial estates." "Industrial estates?" "Industrial estates." "Since when have car showrooms been likely holiday rental accommodation?" "Have you looked on Airbnb lately?"
What a fabulous week it was for tourism, but less than fabulous for Bel, whose thunder was stolen in Madrid and then later in Palma when the Great Map was put on display.
Still, we can now expect her to refer to the Great Map when explaining how sustainability is to be assured, how wealth is to be redistributed to the citizens, how the land (our land) will be saved, how jobs will be created ... . What she probably won't be saying is anything about the tourist tax percentage of the total cost of the holiday for a family of four. Where's Biel when we need him?
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