This March 9 marks the 10th anniversary of the first judicial order against the tourist complex of the

Island of Vadecañas

(Cáceres), a luxury resort that began to be built in 2007 on land that was part of a ZEPA (Special Protection Area) .

It was the first sentence of a long judicial battle that to this day still does not have the final decision, in the absence of the Supreme Court taking a position against an appeal presented by environmentalists, who consider that demolishing the second phase of construction and leaving the

current

status quo

(as ruled by the Superior Court of Justice of Extremadura -TSJEx- on June 30 of last year) is completely insufficient.

The Junta de Extremadura, which in its day endorsed the urbanization, has now proposed a regeneration in the area with the implementation of 53 actions to be carried out in 35 months for the 'revegetation' of the place, which includes environmental monitoring, creation of two treatment plants or signage and information about the ZEPA, among others.

These measures have been endorsed by the TSJEx, which has urged the Board this week to implement them as soon as possible - regardless of the final resolution of the Supreme Court - "because they are clearly beneficial for the environment."

An hour and a half away from Madrid, and with this political endorsement, Marina Isla de Valdecañas -the promoter of the urbanization that would enter into bankruptcy in the face of judicial slowdowns- came to invest in the first phase of the development of the complex -in an area of ​​133 hectares - about

140 million euros

, with the creation of a four-star hotel with 80 rooms, golf course, jetty, artificial beach, dike, sports facilities ... on land where previously there were only "a secarral", according to the oldest of the place.

In the development of the complex, they opted for the implantation of vegetation (200,000 units of plants, trees and shrubs of a wide biological variety) and more than 75,000 square meters of lawns.

At the same time that 183 solvent owners signed the deeds of acquisition of the independent chalets of the successful development put up for sale - at a rate of

half a million euros on average per home

-, the TSJEx issued the first resolution on March 9, 2011 -attention to the complaint of the Adenex and Ecologists in Action CODA- which declared null the actions of the Junta de Extremadura.

The regional administration had authorized in a Governing Council, under the mandate of Juan Carlos Rodríguez Ibarra, the authorization of urban development by cataloging the project as Regional Interest (PIR).

This first ruling forced - with confirmation after the Supreme Court in 2014 or the Constitutional Court later - to restore the area to its previous state.

The developer was forced to stop the works of the second phase, which included another hotel, this one with five stars, seven independent villas and 85 new apartments, plus another 103 grouped villas, among other investments.

Famous

Liberal professionals, lawyers, people related to banking and even some other famous people (

Gómez Acebo

or

José María Aznar Jr.

, among others) bought one of the houses and even Fran Murcia, a former basketball player, took charge of the coordination sports facilities.

"People bought without knowing the situation that there could be problems, that of course; nobody warned us of anything and we acted in good faith, as stated in the sentence, but we have been singled out for a long time", describes Juan Vázquez, one of the owners, who emphasizes that during the last year - due to the pandemic - the use of the premises has increased, with this second residence serving as a permanent place for teleworking by many professionals.

But there are other cases, such as an owner forced to change his residence to Brussels for professional reasons and who has been unable to sell his home in Valdecañas due to the judicial stoppage of the project and the consequent loss of property value.

"Who is going to want to invest in the area now until everything is finally cleared up?"

If a court order for the complete demolition were issued, a matter now quite unlikely, the owners considered asking for compensation for damages that could reach

215 million

.

Employment creation

The judicial uncertainty has slowed the creation of direct employment in the complex (a hundred, 35 permanent and another 65 temporary) and almost double indirectly, in addition to economically benefiting the two towns in the area,

El Gordo

(400 inhabitants and 300,000 euros of taxes received from the complex) and

Berrocalejo

(198 inhabitants and about 6,000 euros).

In the fight against the depopulation of rural areas, the nearest town, El Gordo, has been in this decade the great beneficiary of the construction of the first phase, because the complete development judicially annulled was going to be carried out on land close to the second locality, Berrocalejo.

For its mayor, Ángel Pedro Martínez (PSOE), the lesson that the Junta has to learn from the whole case is that "you cannot declare half of Extremadura as a Zepa area; thus it is impossible to prosper and that does not mean that it is not necessary to respect environmental zones, but everything is compatible, from respect and order ".

This Special Protection Zone affects some

7,600 hectares,

although Valdecañas Island represents less than 2% of the total, located next to a reservoir built during the Franco dictatorship in 1963, which served for years as a landfill for the region.

The first mayor acknowledges that the last sentence of the TSJEx that maintains the

current

status quo

"is positive because at least it will not be necessary to demolish everything and the jobs will be maintained" while he dreams that, in the future, "things may be possible. change and perhaps everything can be completed, but at least, for the moment, the uncertainty is less, in that it has been won after the last sentence ".

The owners' lawyer,

Luis Díaz Ambrona

, who together with all the parties involved, has held two meetings with the regional administration for the future environmental action plan, considers it logical that the TSJEx has endorsed the Board's action plan, " that it has nothing to do with the appeal in the Supreme Court of ecologists "because, whatever happens, these improvements will benefit the area:" And the best thing is to do it as soon as possible, taking into account the deadlines that always has the Administration, and not wait two or three years for that restoration ".

In any case, it underlines that it has doubts that this higher court will eventually even admit said appeal for processing, a matter that could be elucidated in the next four to six months.

Ecologists

With the environmental association Adenex already out of the process due to the high cost of resources, Ecologists in Action-CODA presented on November 9 the appeal before the Supreme Court.

It is based, according to the lawyer for this group,

Ángel García Calle

, on the fact that the sentence could not hide behind declaring "the partial material impossibility of executing the sentence."

Thus, it is explained in the appeal that "the compromise solution of declaring it impossible to carry out the demolition and restitution of the affected lands to their previous state flagrantly contradicts the terms of the ruling that is said to be executed."

García Calle warns that the European Commission increasingly pursues these urban crimes against the environment, "and has already repeatedly warned Spain that it is very permissive with them", even proposing very important fines.

"So it is not that we ecologists want to demolish the entire complex, but rather a sentence of the Supreme Court ratified by the Constitutional Court says so," he clarifies.

However, the ruling of the TSJEx that allows leaving the first phase of the complex as it is, clings to the fact that at this time "due protection of the environment is guaranteed" as well as the importance of the "socio-economic impact in the region that has meant the complex "as well as the" serious economic damage to the Public Treasury that would occur if everything built was demolished. "

The court also took into account the "protection of third parties, the principle of legal certainty and the time elapsed from the filing of the appeals -the first in 2007- until the resolution of the execution incident, in June 2020."

The demolition of the second phase of the complex - which will last

at least three years from its inception

- will consist of the foundations of almost fifty villas, also the second hotel of the complex, of the finished houses that now serve as the office of the promoter and pilot flat, among other infrastructures, such as benches for future construction.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

Know more

  • Supreme court

  • Estremadura

  • PSOE

  • European Comission

  • Spain

  • constitutional Court

  • Cáceres

  • Madrid

  • Justice

  • Environment

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