The Canary Islands Coastal Authority agreed on September 25 to initiate a file to update the demarcation of the public maritime-terrestrial domain of the coastal stretch that affects the Islote del Francés, whose land it classifies as developable, not urban land. Thus, it establishes a protection easement of 100 meters, which would prevent the construction of any building on the entire piece of land and thereby prevent Arrecife from having to pay a millionaire compensation, which the owners estimated at more than 200 million euros in case they were prevented from building.
The initiation of the file was agreed after a resolution of the General Directorate of Sustainability of the Coast and the Sea of the Ministry of Ecological Transition dated August 27, in which it was pointed out that, according to the Canary Islands Coastal Authority, the demarcation that was approved in 1970 "is not considered in accordance with the current Coastal regulations, since there may be assets with characteristics of public maritime-terrestrial domain not included in it", according to what is reflected in a report from the Lanzarote surveillance service, from January 2019.
In addition, it is indicated that already in June 2018 a letter was sent to the Canary Islands Coastal Authority in which, after analyzing the documentation in the file, it was indicated that "the land corresponding to the so-called Islote del Francés was classified as developable land", so it would correspond to the general width of the protection easement "of 100 meters" specified in the Coastal Law of 1988.
The entire Islote would be affected by the protection easement
Thus, dated April 2, 2019, the Canary Islands Coastal Authority was authorized to initiate the demarcation of reference, sending in July by the latter a plan signed by the head of the Coastal Authority in the Canary Islands "with the provisional delimitation of demarcation". And in that plan, to which La Voz has had access, the entire surface of the Islote del Francés appears as affected by the protection easement.
In this way, after analyzing the documentation and "without prejudice to what results from the processing of the file", the General Directorate of Sustainability of the Coast of the Sea considered that the Canary Islands Coastal Authority could proceed to initiate the demarcation file, since "said initiation was already authorized on August 17, 2018", according to what it states. In this regard, it was indicated that according to the Coastal Law, the deadline to notify the resolution of the procedure is 24 months "from the date of publication of the agreement to initiate the demarcation file".
From a shopping center to "an icon" and seven-story buildings
This new demarcation would stop the urban development of the Islote del Francés, where its owners initially planned, two decades ago, to build a shopping center with an auditorium.
Later, under the Mayoralty of the popular Cándido Reguera, it was planned to erect an "icon" building in height, for which the City Council proposed to sign an agreement with the property.
Finally, the drafting team of the Arrecife General Plan even opened the door to the possibility of building buildings of up to seven stories high on the Islote del Francés, allowing the urbanization of 69,434 square meters and the construction of 405 homes as well. A claim that aroused strong criticism and that would now be stopped by this new demarcation if approved.
