The Papagayo Arena hotel has been operating without a license for years, and although the Lanzarote Cabildo and the Canary Islands Government seemed to throw it a lifeline, its legal situation does not seem to be close to being resolved.
The Yaiza Town Hall issued a statement last night in which it clarified that it cannot resolve the urban planning license for the Playa Blanca complex without the approval of Costas, and without making the public access road to the coast usable again that they built over.
According to the municipal government, in order to legalise the complex, tourism authorisation is also necessary, which the Cabildo of Lanzarote began to process this Monday. However, although they assured that these were two different procedures, this file is mandatory.
“The Yaiza Town Hall cannot grant a planning licence without having official tourism authorisation from the Cabildo,” the council responded bluntly in a statement. The City Council is protected by Law 2/2019 on the Renewal and Modernisation of Tourism in the Canary Islands, which states that the implementation of new tourist accommodation in Lanzarote, Fuerteventura, Gran Canaria and Tenerife is “subject to prior authorisation from the respective island councils”. According to this regulation, prior authorisation is required for renovations and extensions of hotels.
In order to resolve the situation, the Yaiza Town Council also needs the approval of Costas, the Coastal Authority, which has placed the complex in the coastal protection zone. Costas has reviewed the beach boundary and has confirmed that the width of the right of way bordering the sea is 100 metres and not 20 as thought.
In addition, the resolution of Costas orders “to rectify the legal situations in the registry that contradict the approved boundary. If the complex doesn’t have both authorisations, it will not be able to issue any resolution on the project to legalise the hotel”, said Yaiza Council.
In this right-of-way area, it is forbidden to build houses or hotels of any kind. For this reason, the City Council has announced that it will appeal the new boundary, “not specifically because of the Papagayo Arena hotel, but because of the wide area of the municipal territory affected.”
The hotel's license was revoked in the “Yate” case ruling, which was one of the darkest periods for Yaiza and Playa Blanca. The mayor at the time, José Francisco Reyes, granted dozens of licenses "with no legal basis other than his whim," according to the ruling.
As a result, the complex has more floors than allowed and occupies a public access road to the coast. This is why the Yaiza City Council stresses that in order to begin the project to legalise the complex, it must remedy the occupation of the public pedestrian access roads to the coast.
