MADRID The Spanish Supreme Court has ruled that a luxury hotel and a golf resort in the arid Spanish heartland will be demolished after a 14-year legal battle. This was due to violations of environmental laws.
Marina Isla de Valdecaas was a resort for four stars built on an island within a reservoir in Extremadura. The resort is about two hours drive from Madrid. It quickly became a popular weekend getaway spot for celebrities and businesspeople.
Extremadura’s regional politicians supported the development, believing that it would bring much-needed investments to the region. Long ranked as one of the most important cities in the world. Region with the lowest incomeExtremadura, a province of mainland Spain, has struggled to develop its tourism industry, which has been a driver of growth in other parts.
However, environmental groups sued to stop the resort from being built. They claimed that the resort was built in a protected area. Last week, they won a decisive victory against Jos Mara Gea, the government, and the developer.
The decision was made public by Guillermo Fernndez Vara (president of the Extremadura regional government). At a news conferenceHe would save Valdecaas.
In Make a statementEcologistas en Accin is one of two environmental groups to have led the court fight against Valdecaas. It said that the ruling should also be stopped from another, larger, tourism development. This project, also located in Extremadura was called Elysium City,This month, the regional authorities gave preliminary approval.
Unfortunately, Spain’s thinking is that anything built should remain, no matter what the legal or wrong reasons might be, Jos mara Trillo FigueroaCalvo, a lawyer representing Ecologistas de Accin stated in a phone interview.
The history of Valdecaas was not a smooth one. After the project was approved by the regional authorities in 2007, environmentalists sued because the area was part a network protected spaces. Natura 2000The European Union has designated ‘Endangered Species’ to protect migrating birds and their habitats.
The hotel and golf course were opened in 2010. However, environmentalists won their first legal fight when a regional court rejected the decision to approve building licenses.
As with many Spanish contested property projects, the dispute continued for a decade. A regional court had estimated that the cost of removing all the buildings at Valdecaas, which would amount to approximately $165 million, was 145 million euros.
Last week, the Supreme Court ruled that all of it should be canceled and that the golf course should return to its natural state.
The long-running legal battle over Valdecaas resort is symbolic for Spain’s struggle to balance environmental issues with the desire to attract tourists. This will help to regenerate rural villages and towns that have been eroded over the past few years as young people gravitated towards cities.
A 15-year-old court battle is underway in the southern province Almera over whether to demolish an enormous beachfront hotel built in a natural reserve. Extensive tourism development has also been blamed for causing damage to the Mar Menor saltwater lake on the southeastern coast.
Spain is not the only country that has seen how tourism construction can attract investment.
Last week, Cornwall’s local council informed a hotel that it has six month to remove beachfront structures. Nine meeting rooms were added to the site to host a Group of 7 summit. In the Thursday enforcement noticeThe council also demanded that Carbis Bay Hotel return the land to its original levels, conditions, and gradients.
The dispute was over whether the hotel had submitted a plan application after construction had begun. Local residents expressed concern about the potential for damage to the coastline and wildlife. The hotel did no immediate respond to a request to comment.
Derek Thomas, the Member of Parliament for West Cornwall Tweeted byThis is great news, but it’s absurd that it took so long to enforce an obvious breach of planning conditions.
The Spanish decision can still appeal to the Constitutional Court. Mr. Fernndez Vara stated that his administration would likely do that, but did not specify what new arguments could be made.
He called it a paradox, that the European Union wanted to preserve rural towns and villages while setting environmental protection rules that he said limited economic growth in low-populated areas.
He stated that we face the immense challenge of fighting depopulation in areas where people are losing their lives because of the excess protection they receive.
Environmentalists in Spain, however, praised the Supreme Courts decision. We have created a culture that encourages legal impunity, which is why so much construction has been permitted in areas of special environmental value, Mr. TrilloFigueroaCalvo said.
Aina J. KhanContributed reporting