August 2022

Dear Friends and Neighbors:

This is the first monthly newsletter for Protect Todos Santos, a newly formed organization of Mexican nationals and foreign citizens formed to protect Todos Santos, including our coastal dunes, pristine environment and our culture and history as a small pueblo

For those of you who are not familiar with our organization, we hope you will visit our website at www.protecttodossantos.org. The website is designed to educate citizens and residents on the many threats our community faces from rapid and uncontrolled development that does not comply with our Community Development Plan also known as the PDU, that was enacted a decade ago. This development also threatens our already unsustainable aquifer water supplies.

Our goal is to stop all illegal construction, such as building 3 homes on lots that only allow one, (see Larry’s Story below), and to protect the dunes from any further illegal construction. We hope you will support us in that effort by not only joining our organization. but passing this newsletter along to everyone you know. So please Join Us when you are on the site so we can keep you informed with our monthly newsletters.

Protect Todos Santos Website Launched

We launched our website in June so that members of our community would become knowledgeable about the threats we face and how we intend to address them.

The three main threats include: (1) uncontrolled overdevelopment, (2) destruction of our coastal dunes, and water scarcity.

Mexican nationals and foreign residents have spent decades fighting to protect this magical place, but now with property values increasing we are seeing more illegal growth and more real estate developers anxious to build in Todos Santos with the Municipality in La Paz still issuing permits for projects that violate the PDU.

Stopping illegal permits is difficult because the Municipality receives 40% of their total revenues from permits and development fees and when they issue permits, the project becomes legal. As a result, we need to file complaints with the Municipality and if that does not result in action, sue the government for not enforcing the PDU.

How Can You Help

Contact Us if you see or become aware of any construction project that appears illegal so we can take immediate action.

Join Us. The more people join our organization, the more powerful we become. To Join Us simply fill out the form on our website.

Help Fund Us. The website has a Donate Page where you can make a US tax-deductible donation. These funds will pay for:

• Lobbying efforts to encourage La Paz to stop the illegal permits and form the Permit Review Committee called for the PDU,

• Legal fees for lawyers to file complaints and sue violators of the law, and

• Scientific research to inform our actions.

• The operating expenses of the organization are being covered by generous donors, so all donations we receive directly support these efforts.

Join our Dune Alert Whatsapp Group

We have recently created “Dune Alert” on Whatsapp that enables us to organize immediately when the dunes are being threatened. If you would like to be added to Dune Alert, please send an email request to sarah@tealeproductionsinc.com with your phone number and she will add you to the group.

Dune Alert enables us to know very quickly if there is any illegal construction activity commencing and if dune lots are being shown to potential buyers so we can act quickly and hopefully stop the projects and sale of lots, which often triggers development.

People also post photos and alerts there when they see construction going up and will share information and contacts.

Letters to All Real Estate Agents

Recently, we had one of our attorneys send letters out to all the real estate agents in Todos Santos, Pescadero, La Paz and Cabo informing them that our coastal dunes from Elias Calle to Agua Blanca are protected and construction on them has not been allowed since August of 2012 so they understand the legal jeopardy they put themselves in if they sell a dune lot representing it as buildable. So far by contacting real estate agents, we have successfully had numerous dune lots taken off the market.

Protect Todos Santos Article in the Gringo Gazette

Kathryn Reed, a former resident of Todos Santos wrote a wonderful article titled “The Fight for the Todos Santos Dunes Heats Up”. It discusses the launch of our organization and our ongoing fight to protect our coastal dunes from any more illegal development. Here is a link:

https://kathrynreed.com/expat/todos-santos-residents-fight-to-stop-development-on-dunes/

Article in the Journal del Pacifico.

Ken Churchill, a member of Protect Todos Santos, wrote an article on the organization that is in the current issue of the Journal, so check it out.

Lobbying and Litigation Efforts Update

Local attorney John Moreno has been filing complaints and lawsuits against the Municipality in La Paz for issuing permits that do not conform to the PDU and has been successful in stopping several projects from moving forward. These lawsuits have been mostly funded by individuals impacted by the illegal construction and donations from the neighborhood.

We want to speed up the process, so our plan is to build a war chest so that we don’t have to wait and can file complaints and lawsuits quickly, before a project even gets started.

John is also meeting regularly with officials in La Paz to encourage them to form the Citizen’s Oversight Committee that was required to be formed to enforce the PDU. If formed, the committee would have representatives from each area of the Todos Santos region who would review all permit applications before any permits are issued. ACCORDING TO JOHN, THIS WOULD SOLVE 90% OF OUR PROBLEMS. Your contributions will help fund these efforts.

John has also been successful in getting the Municipality to hire Adriana Campo, a licensed architect who resides in Todos Santos to determine if permits have been issued on a project. If we find out there is no permit, it enables us to shut down a project. So please report to us anything suspicious so we can contact her and verify if a permit has been issued.

Larry’s Story

After visiting Baja Sur for more than 50 years, in 2015 Larry Martin bought two adjacent lots in Todos Santos and built a house and casita on them.

“We chose our location due to the unobstructed ocean view and because we knew that the neighborhood was protected by the 2012 Community Plan zoning. This limits development in Las Tunas to one house per half acre,” Martin said.

“Two years ago a La Paz Realtor bought the property between us and the ocean, and secured an option on the adjacent northerly lot. Soon a sign was posted advertising six new homes on the two lots.”

Martin said he told the real estate agent about the Plan for Urban Development (PDU) and how it did not allow for the density he was proposing. According to Martin, the agent had no interest in finding a compromise. This left Larry having to fight it out in La Paz, which handles building permits for the Todos Santos region.

“We were told by the Municipality that the building permit was improperly issued and that the lots were not zoned for this density. But after 10 months, rather than deciding to protect the PDU, La Paz has told us that we need to ask the courts for a decision,” Martin said.

Today, there are three houses on a lot where only one was legally supposed to be built. Now instead of an ocean view he and his wife Laura now look at a wall of houses.

Now Larry is demanding the government have two of the three houses torn down. This, he admits, puts these people’s investments at risk and causes ill-will in the neighborhood, even though all he is doing is trying to enforce rules that have been on the books for a decade. THIS IS WHY WE NEED TO STOP THESE PROJECTS BEFORE THEY START.

Unfortunately, there are so many other stories like Larry’s you will read about in future newsletters. THE BOTTOM LINE IS THIS ILLEGAL CONSTRUCTION HAS TO STOP AND WORKING TOGETHER, AS WE HAVE FOR DECADES AND WITH YOUR HELP, WE CAN HOPEFULLY STOP IT!