The Mayor of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, José Manuel Bermúdez (Canarian Coalition), stated on Thursday that he supports using the only plot of land among the 11 that make up the Las Teresitas beachfront for socio-sanitary purposes, which currently has tourist use.
Bermúdez made these statements in a communication following a meeting with local representatives from San Andrés and the Anaga population centres, to inform these groups about the minor modification of the General Planning which affects Las Teresitas beach, which is currently being drafted.
Until now, the mayor has expressed support for developing the construction of a hotel in that area, and according to the Town Hall’s project, there are also plans for the construction of a commercial area, leisure facilities, sports facilities, and parking. The arrival of a tram and a park was also proposed. In May 2024, Bermúdez joked in a radio interview that Las Teresitas is “not Cuna del Alma” and that the municipality would benefit from exploiting that area, as it currently has no hotels along its coast.
He then stated that if the intention was to declassify that plot, there should be “some sort of justification for reducing the value of public land”, and he joked that it could be turned into “an urban garden”.
Following a wave of criticism regarding Bermúdez’s announcement to revive the idea of developing the beach, the Councillor for Urban Planning, Zaida González, published a video explaining that the land in question is designated for hotels, but that a commercial centre or a socio-sanitary centre could also be constructed. The numerous comments on that publication were largely aimed at rejecting the idea of a hotel and instead requesting a senior citizens’ centre, seen as one of the main needs of the San Andrés neighbourhood.
Now, a week later, Bermúdez claims to support that option and has informed the residents that the Municipal Urban Planning Management has instructed the authors of this modification to expand the uses affecting the plot. However, it is important to note that expanding the land use does not imply that a hotel cannot still be built, meaning the tourist use has not changed; it has simply been expanded, allowing for other types of buildings, but the hotel remains a possibility. In fact, during the meeting with the residents, there was no guarantee that a hotel would not be constructed.
The intention, according to the mayor, is for the draft of the regulations being prepared to include this expansion of uses for that specific plot, which is located behind the San Andrés battery, thus not situated on the beachfront. According to plans disseminated by the Town Hall years ago, the proposed hotel would have around 500 rooms. As early as 2016, when Bermúdez was the Mayor, he proposed the idea of building a hotel in the area to the residents, but it was quickly dismissed by those attending the meeting, who directed the conversation towards the real needs of the neighbourhood. Some time later, Bermúdez revived the idea of the hotel and once again received pushback from the public and the opposition.
The truth is that every so often, it is the mayor himself who revives the plans to build a hotel, even if he now claims to be more interested in a socio-sanitary centre.
“We are expanding the uses of this plot, or in other words, the possibilities of what can be done on that land in the future, which could include a socio-sanitary centre, the construction of housing, or sports facilities. If you ask me as mayor what I would prefer to put there, I can tell you already that a socio-sanitary centre. It is one of the main deficits we have in Tenerife, and specifically in Santa Cruz, where a centre of this type has not been opened since 2008,” he stated.
As he recalled, this plot has been designated for hotels since the planning of the 1990s, and what is now being done is to provide it with other options, “to open the uses of this plot so that whoever governs in the future in the town hall and those who represent the residents can decide what to do”. However, hotel use has not been ruled out.
