The mayor of Yaiza, Óscar Noda, spoke this past Tuesday on Radio Lanzarote-Onda Cero to explain the situation of the illegal Papagayo Arena hotel, in Playa Blanca, after the General Directorate of the Coast and the Sea has included a large part of the building within the new maritime easement. For his part, the southern representative has announced that they are preparing an appeal against this new easement.
"Let it be clear that it does not mean that with this approach to demarcation the hotel has to be demolished, it is not that with this demarcation there is a demolition order, so work will continue," Noda defended in the morning show Buenos días, Lanzarote. At the same time, he pointed out, "of course, if the demarcation is different, it may probably affect it, but there is no firm resolution on the table that says it has to be demolished", except for the central part of the building that occupies a public road accessing a beach.
The civic association El sol sale para todos, which reported in April the Yaiza City Council and the Government of the Canary Islands to the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office for their "inaction", stated that this case is the "most egregious".
Despite the fact that in January 2022, a Court of Administrative Litigation of Las Palmas declared the Papagayo Arena hotel unlegalizable and led to its demolition, at the end of last year, the Superior Court of Justice of the Canary Islands dismissed the demolition of the hotel that had been requested by the previous Government Group of the Cabildo of Lanzarote. For 15 years, this tourist complex has remained open to the public without a license and is "in the process of legalization".
All licenses that the former mayor of Yaiza, José Francisco Reyes, granted for the construction of this hotel have been declared illegal and annulled by the Courts. Therefore, its owners would be obliged to the "restitution of things and replacement to their previous state". Now the new demarcation of Coasts adds a new reason that makes its legalization unfeasible.
Noda, in disagreement with the new easement
The mayor has opposed the new easement proposed by the Government of Spain that extends its width up to 100 meters in Yaiza and has highlighted that the proposed demarcation is "disproportionate" and "not because of that hotel in particular, but I do not believe that it corresponds to reality."
The southern representative has indicated that they already presented allegations at the time, in conjunction with the Government of the Canary Islands. Now, he has assured that this demarcation is published "without any prior meeting, without any prior response" and that "they remain the same".
Faced with this situation, the Yaiza consistory is hiring lawyers to file an appeal for reconsideration or a judicial appeal. In addition, the consistory will wait to see if the "constitutional conflict" between the Government of the Canary Islands and the Government of Spain over the complete transfer of powers in Coasts "gives any result or not."
Óscar Noda has assured during his radio intervention that it is the Cabildo of Lanzarote that has the power to close the establishment and that the Yaiza City Council is in charge of the urban planning part. "It is a prerequisite that it has the tourist activity license that the Cabildo gives and until this moment it is giving them. This one in particular, I think that if it does not have it, it is about to," he added.
Regarding the complaint filed by an association with the Prosecutor's Office for the alleged inaction of public institutions in the case of Papagayo Arena, Noda explains that the consistory has given the Prosecutor's Office "the files related to that establishment."
"I can close a restaurant, a disco that does not comply and in fact I am doing it, but for the purposes of a hotel, I will make the requirements or have my technicians and lawyers inform me of who has to close that activity and I will ask for it if it has to be the Cabildo, to close it, but let's not throw the whole mountain of sand at the City Council," Noda stressed.
