Valencian Coast Law: from the defence of seafaring villages to the reservations of protectionists

The future Law on the Protection and Management of the Valencian Coast was created to respond to an electoral commitment by the PP that would allow “protecting the coastal ecosystem and private property with common sense and balance,” said President Carlos Mazón when the draft was approved last October. However, the Consell’s authorization to allow tertiary use (hotels, for example) 200 meters from the seashore —previously, the limit was 500 meters— in its Simplifica plan has generated suspicions and doubts not only in opposition groups, who see in this new law “an excuse to continue with uncontrolled urban development” but also in lawyers and geographers. Those affected by the 1988 Coast Law see it as a possible lifeline for traditional seaside villages. “Protecting spaces and building are completely opposite aspects,” said Eulàlia Sanjaume , professor of Physical Geography at the University of Valencia, in the Valencian Parliament on Monday, where the bill is in the citizen participation phase.

Sanjaume considers the defence of the Posidonia meadows in the bill to be positive “because they protect the coast” but she was very forceful when she stated that “protecting spaces and building are completely opposite aspects”. For Sanjaume, a national and international authority on beaches, there are more factors that contribute to the regression of the coast than the three mentioned in the preamble of the future law. “I would add the destruction of coastal dunes to build, the construction of promenades because they break the dynamics of the coast, the change in the texture of the sediment on the beaches and, in general, the urbanisation of the coast”, she listed. “There has been building everywhere, there are few unbuilt spaces”, said the professor who, in her opinion, should remove the word protection from the title of the law and only leave it with planning.

Antonio Prieto, an expert in land use planning and natural risks at the University of Alicante, believes that the draft law speaks of integrated management of coastal areas in accordance with EU environmental policies, but does not consider settlements of ethnological interest, as the law seeks to protect, the traditional coastal centres, most of which come from concessions of coastal legislation from the 1930s or 1940s in Spain. Prieto warns of the retreat of the coastline, which will worsen in the future, and therefore advocates halting its occupation and moving some occupied areas of the coast further inland. “I would insist that the regression of the coast is inexorable according to all scenarios and that solutions based on nature should be sought and on eliminating the possible occupation of these lands,” Prieto stressed.

Inmaculada Yáñez, representative of the Virgen del Carmen Association of Nules, which brings together owners of the cottages on the beachfront of the municipality, has stressed their fight against the state law of Coasts of 1988, which with the demarcations expropriated their houses for occupation of the maritime-terrestrial domain in exchange for a temporary concession. To save the cottages on the coast they ask the Generalitat for their declaration as a Property of Local Relevance (BRL) because "they are century-old houses, some were shelters in the middle of the Civil War, they have a typical coastal architecture and have acted as a containment dam in the absence of public works" to prevent the loss of sand from the beaches. "It is the first time that it has been given the status of law and not of a territorial plan and it is fully compatible with the legislation," she argued in the Environment Commission of the Valencian Parliament where a dozen experts and affected parties appeared on Monday.

Manuel López, representative of Som Mediterrània, which brings together 50 associations affected by the 1988 law, has complained that Valencian beaches have been neglected by the Spanish government for years. “This law has passed the required decisions and the question is not whether it is constitutional but why it has not been done before,” he argued. “I don’t know if this law can fix the problems created by the state Coastal Law, but at least we have a helping hand. If it is debatable, let’s continue working on it,” López requested.

For Inmaculada Revuelta, a professor of Administrative Law at the University of Valencia, this bill “is absolutely necessary and convenient” and, in terms of beaches, it is respectful of state regulations. The text is “clearly unsatisfactory” when it comes to compensating the concessionaires of these properties on the beachfront, although the Consell offers, to the extent of its possibilities, a similar use to that which they had in another area. “It is an attempt to resolve the housing problems of many people. We must continue to make progress on it and the parties must debate it,” she insisted.

Urban planning expert Juan Enrique Serrano believes that the Pativel should not be a mere adaptation, but rather a revision, and he believes that the Consell text includes four planning instruments that are not necessary, given that they already exist in urban planning with other names.

Andrés Boix, professor of Administrative Law at the University of Valencia, shares the concern of the Generalitat about assuming, through an autonomous law, powers over the maritime-terrestrial public domain because it is Valencian territory. “Now then, if you do it you have to say how,” he explained, while proposing a process of public participation to decide the uses of a public space such as the coast. Boix insisted that the principle of non-regression, included in article 4, requires that this law does not go backwards in the protection established by the Territorial Plan for the Coast (Pativel), which will be repealed. “I think the law is reasonable to do so, but it is not to save houses from the sea,” he stressed. The professor believes that the project should clearly state, without the possibility of second interpretations, that the level of protection of the Pativel must be respected and integrated into the law.

Geographer Ana Belén Ruescas has recalled that the coast is a fragile and dynamic system and if the balance between sedimentation and erosion is broken “irreversible processes are generated”. “We have a coast intensively developed by tourism, with a proliferation of coastal infrastructures such as ports. And then there are the risks associated with climate change, with a rise in sea level and the advance of the coastline, so fragmenting nature [with works and constructions] is perpetuating the problems”, she explained.

José Francisco Ros, president of the Association for the defence of the northern beaches of Dénia, considers the law a ray of hope and hopes that it will allow its promoters to “do what the State has not been able to do, which is the regeneration of our beaches”. The Generalitat should, according to Ros, go one step further, getting involved in regeneration projects” because the coast is vital for the economic activity of tourism and the port. “We are a country of services, so we will have to pamper them, right?” he stressed. This affected person defends that the necessary sand contributions be made to regenerate the beaches and has criticised the low budget available to the General Directorate of Coasts of the Ministry with the kilometres of coast that the country has.

For the geographer Maria Josep Ripoll, also a councillor for Urban Planning in Dénia from the PSPV, “the Pativel will not have any kind of continuity in the draft law on Protection and Planning of the Coast that Mazón's team has drawn up: “The model that is being proposed now is more concrete on our beaches”, she denounced while acknowledging that guarantees cannot be given to people who live on the coast line with an increasing number of storms and rising sea levels.