The huge illegal excavation that Juan Francisco Rosa started more than a year ago at the entrance to Yaiza has reached the courts and has given rise to a new criminal case against him. The works are located on a plot located next to the old Finca Las Salinas hotel, which the businessman acquired more than five years ago to convert it into the Stratvs hotel, and in which he also carried out illegal works that had to be stopped by order of Heritage.
Regarding the excavation, which supposedly began to build a cistern, it was a neighbor who filed a complaint two months ago with the Civil Guard, for the damage it would have caused to her home. Now, the Investigating Court Number 3 of Arrecife has already opened proceedings and has summoned the businessman to testify as an investigated party on March 24.
In the same order, Judge José Luis Ruiz Martínez also orders that Rosa be required to provide the license for these excavation works, which also had to be sealed off in November of last year by the Yaiza City Council because they did not have legal coverage. However, according to the complainant, the works then continued and the excavation reached the wall that delimits her home, in which she began to notice damage at the beginning of last October.
A "cistern" according to Rosa, a quarry according to the complainant
"It has been sealed off on several occasions," the mayor of Yaiza, Óscar Noda, has confirmed. The first time was a year ago, three months after this neighbor began to file complaints about these works with the City Council. At that time, the City Council confirmed to La Voz that the works that the businessman was carrying out had nothing to do with what had been authorized, since he only had permission to build a cistern and what was being carried out was a huge excavation.
Image of the works when the works were restarted a few months ago.
According to the complainant, this excavation would have been used as a quarry and the extracted material would have been sent to Playa Blanca for the port works. This is what she stated in the complaint she filed with the Civil Guard on October 4, when she saw that the works had been restarted and began to detect damage to her house. Later, the agents forwarded this complaint to the Court, which is the one that has now opened proceedings to investigate the facts. And in these proceedings, Rosa appears as an investigated party, that is, what was previously known judicially as an accused.
"The facts that result from the previous actions present characteristics that lead to presume the possible existence of a crime of damage," the order states dated November 11, with which the magistrate ordered to open these investigation proceedings, also agreeing that both the complainant and the defendant be called to testify. In her case, she already went to the Courts last week to ratify her complaint. In addition, in that act she was offered to exercise civil or criminal actions and appear in the case as a harmed party.
The adjoining house "is cracking in different places"
Although the damage assessment by the insurance company is still pending, the complainant stated, among other things, that her house "is cracking in different places", that "structural damage is occurring, such as cracks in columns and plates", that "the floor of the house has lowered", that "the door cannot be opened" and that the works have also affected the pool and the cistern, causing "dampness on the wall".
In addition, she claims that they have "destroyed" the asphalt road that leads to her house and that "the work has invaded the easement". Similarly, she warned that due to the clearing carried out next to the access road to her home, it "is dangerous for the passage of people and vehicles, in addition to exposing essential facilities for the home, such as water, electricity and telephone".
The City Council affirms that it remains "vigilant"
For its part, although the works in the area continue, the City Council affirms that the illegal part of the excavation has stopped. "At the time we understood that it was being opened more than allowed, they presented allegations that in one part could be right, in another not, it has been sealed off on several occasions, it has been reviewed again, and in principle what has continued or could have continued excavating is within what is allowed and has not expanded further. Rather, it is doing it in what is depth, not along, which is what happened in the beginning," the mayor has affirmed. In fact, the machine that is now digging is located in another area and has nothing to do with the excavator that could be seen in the previous images that La Voz was able to capture.
Image of the machine that is working now, even outside the area of the previous excavation
However, Óscar Noda assures that they continue "reviewing" and "vigilant", and even points out that the breaches could have affected rustic land. "Of course, any incident that happens in what is the rustic part, that is sent to the Agency for the Protection of the Natural Urban Environment. All of that is being done and then it also depends on this body taking its measures," he has pointed out in this regard.
In any case, now it will be the Court that analyzes this file, since among other things it has demanded from Rosa the license that proves if she had permission to execute that excavation.
"Irreversible damage" to the protected property
In addition to this illegal excavation, Rosa had already carried out illegal works on the Finca Las Salinas property itself, which she intended to convert into the Stratvs hotel. In May 2014, the City Council already had to stop the works that the businessman was carrying out in this protected building, since he started them without having any type of permit.
Juan Francisco Rosa requested a license to remodel the hotel after starting the works and finally obtained it in December of that year, so he was able to resume them. However, he also ended up carrying out unauthorized works and causing "irreversible damage" to this protected property, according to a report from the Heritage Department of the Cabildo.
The first warning was given in June 2015 by a security guard of this area, who only six months after the license was granted denounced that "a large hole" had been opened in the facade, although the Cabildo then presided over by Pedro San Ginés did not adopt measures. And neither did it do so more than a year later, when two other inspection visits were carried out and they detected that the hole had been closed "by means of stones and cement", as well as many other damages caused to the patrimonial values of the property, as reflected in a report dated July 2016.
Finally, another year had to pass for a new report from Heritage, in August 2017, which concluded that "irreversible damage" had already been caused to the patrimonial values of this protected property and requested the precautionary stoppage of the works. And although then those works were finally stopped, months later others began on the plot, with the excavation that the courts are now investigating.
