On May 9, the Congress of Deputies approved the new Coasts Law. A Law called to guarantee the environmental protection and sustainable development of the Spanish coast, taking into account the reality of ...
On May 9, the Congress of Deputies approved the new Coasts Law. A Law called to guarantee the environmental protection and sustainable development of the Spanish coast, taking into account the reality of our coasts; that is, differentiating between urban and natural sections of the beaches and increasing the protection of the virgin beaches.
The regulations protect our coasts and give legal certainty to the thousands of people who have their properties next to the sea, while reconciling environmental sustainability with tourist activity.
The new legal framework responds to the more than 20,000 requests for protection submitted to the European Parliament by owners who had acquired properties and that, over time, could be declared illegal. This is not an amnesty, nor to legalize the illegal, as they were already legal. In addition, coastal businesses will have to meet the new environmental requirements to continue operating.
The reform prohibits new buildings or increases in what has already been built on the coast, both in the public maritime-terrestrial domain and in the contiguous area or strip of protection easement, incorporating clauses to stop any illegal construction before it is consolidated.
Urban centers inhabited and consolidated since before 1988 and that mostly affect simple and popular homes, not hotels or companies, are excluded from the public domain.
On the other hand, the width of the protection easement is maintained at 100 meters. It only specifies how the special rule of 20 meters is applied, already provided for in the 1988 Law, but with an important novelty: new buildings are expressly prohibited in these areas. According to the new text, the reduction of the easement can only be applied to coastal areas that, before 1988, had an urban character.
Regarding climate change and its effects on coastal erosion, it incorporates specific regulations. Thus, and following proven scientific criteria, it will introduce a specific regime for coastal sections at risk of serious regression. For these areas, occupation is limited, and the Administration may carry out protection, conservation, restoration actions and may establish special contributions to the beneficiaries, another important novelty of the regulations.
An equally important aspect of this reform is that which refers to the extension of concessions up to a maximum of 75 years, which improves the legal situation of the former owners of homes that the law of 88 expropriated. During the concession and its extensions (up to 75 years), adequate conservation of the coast will be guaranteed and, in addition, owners will be required to share responsibility in the maintenance of the public domain.
On the other hand, and given that they are sometimes occurring without authorization and with certain permissiveness, the Coasts Law will regulate the development of events on our beaches. And it will do so by establishing the requirements, limits and conditions in which the occupation of these spaces is possible to guarantee their conservation, in addition these occupations are restricted to urban sections.
In short, a reform that clearly and decisively intends to respond to a reality that, due to responsibility, had to be faced, and so has Minister Arias Cañete.
*Francisco Cabrera García, national deputy of the PP.
