The Arona City Council has ruled out appealing the ruling of the Administrative Court number 3 of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, which overturned the suspension order and closure of the construction of the Arts cultural and commercial centre and the €190,000 fine imposed in 2020 by José Julián Mena (PSOE), who was then in charge of Urban Planning and also the Mayor of Arona, to its promoter.
The legal services of the Arona City Council and the Cabildo de Tenerife both agree that the judicial ruling is decisive against Mena’s decision (PSOE), who is now in opposition, and filing an appeal would only serve to delay the process. From this perspective, the Arona City Council also believes that appealing would only increase the potential compensations it will have to face for the time that this commercial centre located in Los Cristianos has been closed without any justification, as ruled by Judge Cristina Escamilla.
The deadline of 10 days given by the judge concluded yesterday without the City Council exercising its right to appeal, so the ruling will stand. The Arona government will now focus on minimizing the economic damage that this process may cause.
Confirmation of another ruling
This ruling, which upheld the one issued in November 2023 by the Administrative Court Number 4 of Santa Cruz, confirms that the “reality” of the urban infringement consisting of carrying out works, constructions, and buildings without a license and on public land has not been proven, leading to the immediate halt and closure. Both judicial resolutions argue that the City Council, through José Julián Mena as he had been assigned the Urban Planning competencies, fined and closed Arts in 2020 “without the existence in the administrative file of a technical report confirming that the works in question were being carried out without the corresponding authorizing title”. It points out that the sanctioning procedure maintained the provisional measures based on “a technical report issued on July 17, 2020, which is not attached”. A report that was not provided by the Arona City Council and is unrelated to the works in question.
In the previous ruling in 2023 which already annulled the €190,000 fine to Melisofi Consulting SL, the promoter of this commercial centre, Judge María Concepción Pérez-Crespo already considered that the Arona City Council during José Julián Mena’s tenure (PSOE) lacked the elements to conclude that works carried out in the commercial centre were done without a license and encroaching on the maritime-terrestrial public domain.
Both judges sided with Melisofi Consulting and dismissed the €190,000 fine and the closure. The building, located on the bustling waterfront of Los Cristianos, is officially called Arts Lifestyle & Shopping Tenerife, a cultural and commercial centre built between Las Vistas and El Camisón beaches, on what is known as the Domínguez house.
In June 2017, after its inauguration, the Urban Planning department closed it due to other irregularities related to servitude and setbacks, which have nothing to do with the mentioned judicial process, demanding works for the “restoration of legality.”
The Arts commercial centre remains closed, awaiting compliance with urban planning regulations to be able to reopen its doors and another judicial investigation. In 2021, in the same month as the imposition of the fine, the Provincial Prosecutor’s Office of Santa Cruz de Tenerife filed a complaint after detecting signs of an alleged urban planning crime in the construction of this building. This process continues without any progress known for three years.
Subscribe to continue reading
