La Tejita Beach Club Resort is a five-star tourist complex whose construction will resume in the coming days in the vicinity of La Tejita, after the TSJC declared, the last one last December, three favorable judgments in favor of the promoter. This hotel complex is authorized for 833 beds distributed in 342 rooms and a maximum height of three floors.
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The construction of the La Tejita Beach Club Resort hotel will resume in the coming days. This luxury tourist complex was supposed to be operational by now, considering that the building permit was granted on December 21, 2018, and work began on May 29, 2019, with a deadline of two years (48 months) for completion. The stoppage – on June 27, 2020, for the first time, and in May 2021, the second – delayed the project’s execution, so the promoter, Grupo Viqueira, considers itself harmed and has taken legal action against the Ministry for Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge (central government) and the Canary Agency for the Protection of the Natural Environment (Canary Executive), which decreed such stoppages. This is based on three final judgments issued by the First Section of the Administrative Litigation Division of the Superior Court of Justice of Canarias (TSJC), which endorse the construction of this luxury hotel.
La Tejita Beach Club Resort is being built on consolidated urban land located on Avenida Los Abrigos (road between El Médano and Los Abrigos), in the Costabella area. This five-star hotel is licensed for 833 beds in 342 rooms. It is authorized to have a built area of 38,107 square meters, with 26,758 buildable and a maximum height of 10.4 meters.
Fifteen days after the start of the work, the head of the Coastal Provincial Service issued a letter ordering the “total and immediate stoppage” within five days and the restoration of the land to its previous state. This was based on the alleged impact of the work on the easement area of the maritime-land public domain, a fundamental argument of the project’s opponents, led by Save La Tejita.
Boundaries
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At the request of this environmental group and ATAN, the General Directorate of Coastal and Marine Sustainability was then processing the review of the boundary in that coastal stretch, an event that should lead to the suspension of the current licenses, according to Save La Tejita. It argued that the protection easement area should be raised to 100 meters from the maritime-land boundary instead of being set at 20 meters. The Ministry of Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge maintained the 20 meters in the stretch of 458 linear meters from the Costabella Urbanization to Punta del Bocinegro, as reported in the Official State Gazette on February 17, 2021.
Previously, after six in the morning on June 16, 2020, a pair of activists from the environmental group Stop Hotel La Tejita climbed two crane booms used in the construction, remaining at a height of 25 meters until 17:41 on the day 27. They spent 11 days demanding the immediate cessation of the work.
The possible impact on the maritime-land easement area is the reason for the stoppages
The Ministry for Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge ordered, as a precautionary measure, in a resolution of June 22, 2020, communicated to the promoter the day before the end of the activists’ protest. Against these, the Court of Instruction Number 3 of Granadilla de Abona dismissed, in March 2022, a case of coercion and disobedience.
Since the beginning of this work, there have been protests and claims to the administrations involved in this file (Granadilla de Abona City Council, Canary Islands Government and central Executive) to intervene and prevent the continuation of the works.
The Ministry of Ecological Transition of the Canary Islands Government notified (May 7, 2021) the Viqueira Group of the order to stop the works, days after the Canary Agency for the Protection of the Natural Environment “verified the resumption of the works in the easement area and on the plot affected by the boundary approved by the State earlier this year”.
All of this is rebutted by the TSJC in three final judgments issued between 2021 and 2023. The Canary High Court maintains that “the urban planning authorization and license complied with the demarcation of the current maritime-land area” and emphasizes that “the demarcation initiated subsequently cannot affect the licenses already granted”.
In response to this, Save La Tejita has publicly stated its intention to continue its fight. To this end, they call for an urgent assembly to be held at 4 pm on the beach of Chiringuito Pirata, in La Tejita.
Back in 1994, Grupo Viqueira, the developer, took over the urbanisation where the area for constructing the Hotel La Tejita Beach Club Resort is situated.
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The urban planning license for the basic project was granted by the Local Government Board of Granadilla de Abona on September 19, 2017. The construction licence was then awarded on December 21, 2018.
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Work on the La Tejita hotel started on May 29, 2019, with the first machinery and earth movement taking place at the Costabella urbanisation site. These activities were brought to the attention of the environmental groups Salvar La Tejita and the Tenerife Association of Friends of Nature (ATAN), who reported them to the General Directorate of Sustainability of the Coast and the Sea.
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On June 14, 2019, the Provincial Coastal Service instructed the developer to halt the land preparation work as it was encroaching upon the maritime-terrestrial easement area.
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Two activists occupied two cranes used in the construction work from June 16 to 27, 2020, following the work stoppage on June 22 (notified on the 26th to the company) by the Ministry for the Ecological Transition.
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The review of the maritime-terrestrial demarcation in the area was resolved by the General Directorate of the Coast and the Sea on February 12, 2021. It was determined that the easement area would be 20 meters instead of the 100 proposed by the environmental groups.
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The Viqueira Group received orders from the Department of Ecological Transition of the Government of the Canary Islands on May 7, 2021, to cease the construction work due to its encroachment on the easement area.
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On February 23 of this year, the developer announced plans to resume the work shortly and highlighted three court decisions from the TSJC that support their argument for the legality of the project, as the new demarcation cannot invalidate the previously issued licenses based on a different boundary.
