November 2022
Permit Issued for Dune Lot on Vista Ballenas
A building permit was issued by the municipality to Eddie Odgen the main developer of the 90 dune lots along the coast in Las Tunas and San Sebastian. We immediately assembled 100 people to protest at the Cultural Center in Todos Santos at a meeting on October 29th held with the municipality in La Paz to update our current PDU.
Our Delegado Javier Salgado was at the meeting and when he heard about the dune permit he immediately called the municipality for voice his concern. The protest and his phone call got the immediate attention of the municipality, and they called a special meeting 2 days later on December 1st. The meeting was lead by the President of the Municipality and attended by our Attorney John Moreno and members of Protect Todos Santos along the SERMANAT the Mexican environmental ministry.
At the meeting it was agreed that the permit was issued by mistake because it violated the PDU, however the municipality would not pull the permit so we held another larger protest of over 150 people at the construction site on Friday December 2nd.
Currently our attorney John Moreno is filling lawsuits against the people who issued the permit and the municipality itself. We are hoping the court will issue an injunction to stop the project.
Stay tuned.
New Illegal Projects Spring up in Las Tunas
Las Tunas along with most of the coastline is zoned RT for Residential Tourist. According to the zoning rules that means it is zoned mostly for single family homes. Boutique hotels are allowed, but the limit is 10 rooms per hectare of land. A hectare is about 2.5 acres meaning only one hotel room is allowed per quarter acre of land.
There is one project under construction near the end of Calle Mango on what appears to be one acre that includes 8 units. In addition, there are two projects being built on Vista Ballenas just south of the intersection with International. Both happen to be directly across from the homes built on the dunes. These projects mark what could be a disturbing trend of developers from outside the area building small hotel sized rooms in Todos Santos in the RT zoned areas and renting them out on VRBO.
To deal with this problem our attorney John Moreno is going to file complaints with the municipality to see if they will take any action. We shall see what happens, but if the past is any indication John will probably have to file lawsuits.
Most of the lawsuits filed so far have been funded by affected neighbors, but these types of projects affect all of us. We are hoping you will consider making an online donation to our organization so John can continue his work to stop these and future illegal construction projects impacting our community.
Update on John Moreno’s Past Efforts
To date, John has filed about 30 complaints with the municipality and about 12 lawsuits relating to violations of the Programa de Desarrollo Urbano (PDU).
According to John, most of the complaints are being reviewed now as a batch by the municipality and most of the 12 lawsuits are still ongoing due to the appeals process. It has been a long and often frustrating process for John, but after meeting with him I think he is rejuvenated by the recent decisions and the support Protect Todos Santos is giving him and he is hoping the courts will rule in our favor setting precedents that will help him with all the cases. We will keep you posted on developments.
John said even though La Paz has been slow to act on illegal construction, if the Federal court (which is where most of the cases reside now) rules that a violation of the law occurred then the municipality must act on the ruling and come up with appropriate remedies.
John said there are two options for corrective actions the municipality could take including requiring removal of structures or to deny them occupancy permits until corrective actions are taken.
Getting La Paz to Allow a Local Committee to Review Plans for Compliance
