Built On Sand: Spain's reformed coasts law

While the Spanish Government's measures to tackle the economy's status - now officially deemed to be Basket Case by all leading ratings agencies - have naturally grabbed the headlines, the government is up to something else that is likely to have far more profound and long-lasting an impact than the savage but hopefully more short-term adjustments to tax, unemployment benefit and the rest.

Almost unnoticed, and it helps that there have been the new round of austerity measures to bury the news, is the passage of the draft new Coasts Law. Reform of this law, and it has been on the statute book since 1988, had been widely anticipated. Some of the changes in the draft are to be welcomed, e.g. they should go some way to allay fears or address issues regarding properties on coastal land that were bought in good faith but which turned out to be illegal, but others are unlikely to be welcome. One can already hear the revs of the environmentalists' solar-powered battle bus as it gets itself into gear in order to object in the strongest possible terms.

The 1988 act was brought in with one overarching aim, which was to set a time limit on righting the wrongs of coastal development. In theory 30 years, but in practice 60, the law envisaged coastal areas returning to something like their natural state thanks to the elimination of some buildings (by the end of the time limit) and the prevention of more. The 30-year limit, which would expire in 2018, was the base period for which owners of property illegally constructed on what was deemed public land. In most cases, it has been or would have been extended to 60 years. 

The law has, however, not been applied with total practicality, with total fairness or with total consistency. Indeed, in certain instances, it took until relatively recently for it to even be invoked. This was the case in Mallorca three years ago when the Costas Authority (part of the national environment ministry) was going around establishing new demarcations of land, based on the authority of the 1988 act. This, the sheer inertia that has accompanied the act, has been but one problem with it. There have been many others, far too many to mention, but fundamentally, the act did not stop further coastal developments, as those owners who have either experienced demolition or been threatened with it will know to their cost.

What the act couldn't prevent was corrupt behaviour, both that of constructors and of local authorities, to say nothing of some legal and real-estate "professionals". But the act also created something of a monster, and that was - and still is - the Costas Authority. As much as anything else, it has been interpretations and definitions made by the authority, together with a zeal bordering on the fanatical, that have brought the law into some disrepute. An example was the sudden appearance, three years ago, of the Costas in Alcúdia and Playa de Muro and their insistence that all manner of properties or constructions of some description did or could contravene the principle of being influenced by the sea. This principle is one which determines, or can do, if land is in the public domain.

Quite clearly, there has been an awful lot of construction since 1988 that would fall foul of the law, whether it is because the land is public domain or whether it breaches other usually held principles of buildings having to be more than 100 metres from the shoreline and of guaranteeing public access to beaches. In practice, the law was often ignored, and ignored not necessarily through ignorance but quite deliberately. The reform of the Coasts Law, badly needed, in effect will grant an amnesty (it doesn't say this, but this is pretty much what it will amount to). Owners will now be able to sell properties, which they can't at present, and the time limit is to be extended to 75 years. In so extending this limit, the government is basically abandoning the fundamental principle of the 1988 act. It is fudging the whole issue, and by 2063, the coasts of Mallorca and of other parts of Spain will probably have taken on a different appearance in any event, courtesy of the impact of climate change, erosion and rising sea levels.

The environmentalists fear a new free-for-all in coastal construction. They may be right to be fearful, but only up to a point. There is to be a distinction between "natural" beaches and coastlines and "urban" ones. There will be greater flexibility to build on the latter, but this in itself introduces another potential for different interpretation.

The government argues that the new law has to be more open to the demands of tourism, hence, for example, current limits on the size of beach bars being raised significantly. The government has a point, but there again one criticism of Mallorca from tourists has been the over-construction that has already occurred. Whether it is right to be more liberal or not, one thing is for sure, and that is that the Costas Authority will not be as zealous as it previously has been. And this will be no bad thing.


Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.