"If neither the Cabildo nor the City Council give us solutions, we will go to the Courts." This is the message that has been launched from Promociones y Proyectos Ultramar, a company that assures that it is already the owner of the Isleta de La Santa and the surrounding land, and that it is willing to demand its rights to build about 6,000 beds in the area. A figure that exceeds the current population of the entire municipality of Tinajo.
These statements have been a cold shower on the island, where until now it was still thought that the land continued to belong to La Caja de Canarias, and that the only thing it had signed with Promociones Ultramar was a purchase option that expired next June, and that at any time could be revoked by one party or another.
However, the CEO of this company, Arturo Fernández, assures that it is not a purchase option, but a firm purchase, although on time, and that in the coming days they will sign the deeds. A fact that according to Fernández already knew the mayor of Tinajo, Jesús Machín, because he says he gave him a copy of that purchase contract.
A purchase that further endangers the future of that area, where up to 5,815 residential beds could be built if the administrations fail to prevent it. Until now, negotiations and meetings with La Caja de Canarias, which owned the land for more than 30 years, have been useless, and the financial institution seems to have disengaged from the matter by selling the land for a sum close to 12 million euros (about 2 billion of the old pesetas).
Warnings
However, the island's institutions still do not recognize Promociones y Proyectos Ultramar as the owner, which has caused outrage in this non-Lanzarote capital company. "We do not want to do any harm to the island, we are open to listening and we can give in, but what they cannot do is stand on the no, and also give the silent response. We have traveled to Lanzarote, we have been to the Cabildo, to the City Council of Tinajo, we have requested interviews and everything has been for nothing. My lawyer is already desperate and has said: I will not call anymore, we are going to take it to court and that's it", says the CEO of Promociones Ultramar, who did not make it clear why his company does not back down in this purchase, given the difficulties it will have to build in the area.
In fact, sources from the Cabildo believe that the intention of the developer when acquiring the land was not to build there, but to obtain some other type of economic benefit or compensation with licenses in another area, and that is why they are forcing a negotiation.
The hope of Coasts
Although the possibility of legally stopping the construction of these beds is not simple, the future of the islet has a trick up its sleeve, and that is that the position of politicians and institutions regarding this issue is unanimous in Lanzarote, at least as far as no one wants these beds to be built in La Santa, an area of high environmental and historical value. But what they do not quite agree on is how to achieve it.
While the government group of the Cabildo and the senator for Lanzarote, Marcos Hernández, consider that the only option is for the Coast Directorate itself to intervene, acquiring these lands so that they are conserved and recovered as a heritage of the island, the mayor of Tinajo has proposed in recent months several ways of negotiating with the owners.
First he proposed to exchange the 5,815 residential beds for just over a thousand tourist beds, in exchange for not touching the Isleta and only building in the surroundings. And more recently, he has even suggested that an operation be carried out together with other businessmen, more specifically the promoters of Yaiza Sport (that is, the Maciot macro-golf project), so that they would bear the compensation for La Santa and in exchange they would be allowed to continue with their project in the south.
However, this proposal has not found an echo. The Councilor for Territorial Policy, Carlos Espino, points out that he does not think it is appropriate to "transfer the problem of La Santa to another point in the territory".
For now, the efforts of the Cabildo are focused on that negotiation with the central government, regardless of who owns the land. According to Carlos Espino, "the priority now is to transfer all the information to Costas so that it acquires those lands, and it will be the one who has to enter into that dispute over who owns the property".
A difficult legal path
In case this option does not prosper and it is necessary to go to the Courts, the battle would certainly not be easy. And it is that although some consider that building rights could have been lost on that area because for more than 30 years La Caja did not develop that partial plan, and because since then there are new territorial laws, the truth is that some legal sources consulted consider that the rights are still in force.
The only hope would be in the new judicial doctrine that is prevailing, and that tends to favor collective rights over individual rights when the latter have not been exercised in their time and, as is the case, the circumstances of the island have varied.
In any case, defending that battle in the courts would be too complex and, if Costas does not acquire the land at the price set by the owner, which will not be easy, the only way out to defend the future of the Isleta de La Santa would be through negotiation or expropriation.
