The neighbors take the Manacor City Council to court for authorizing a beach club in Cala Mendia

ManacorDavid versus Goliath or how to organize from citizen action against a construction that the neighbors consider a new aggression to the Manacor coastal landscape. “If the Portocristo bridge ended up falling due to a poorly granted license, perhaps this one will too,” says Miquel Àngel Riera, the neighbor from Cala Mendia beach who is leading a joint lawsuit against the construction of a beach club for almost 300 users, which a few months ago began to grow by surprise in front of his terrace.

The neighbors, who have filed a contentious-administrative appeal against the Manacor City Council, maintain that the license contradicts the applicable urban planning regulations and warn of a high impact on the environment, traffic, and coexistence.

The first movements on the plot were detected approximately two years ago. Despite the typical fluorescent 'For Sale' sign, the land had remained unbuilt. “The Council had always told us that it had a very low buildability and a significant setback, and that it was not attractive for building on.” The possibilities were so restrictive that, as he explains, the investment did not pay off. “That is why it has surprised us so much that the City Council has now granted a license for something so impactful.”

The activity license provides for 61 interior places and 223 exterior ones, with a large open-air space with swimming pools and, according to those affected, the possibility of music, drinks, and dancing. “The overcrowding, the noise, and the visual impact in an area already as stressed as Cala Mendia will be impressive,” explains Riera, who states that access to the area and the parking situation have been collapsing the place for years during the summer months and until well into October. “Calculate that a facility for almost 300 users could imply, at a minimum, about 150 customer cars, in addition to the workers' vehicles.”

In addition to the noise and problems of coexistence, the neighbors predict a loss of value of the properties, caused by the great visual impact that the construction already has, especially at the foot of the beach. These are large and visible works, in an environment with intense construction activity: in Cala Mendia, a hotel on the same street is also being expanded, as is the urbanization of the Punta Reina tourist complex. To this is added the putting up for sale of 159 semi-detached villas above the Estany d’en Mas torrent, just a few hundred meters away.

“I am a lawyer, although not specialized in urban planning issues, but I consider it contradictory to allow such an installation while beach bars are being removed and there is talk of limiting overcrowding. That is why I will also be interested to see how the defense argues that the license was properly granted. We have the utmost respect for the Justice system, which is why we will abide by the decision, but it seems suspicious to us”.

In fact, the complaining residents have resorted to a specialist lawyer and an architect to review all the available documentation. According to them, both have detected alleged irregularities in the urban planning basis used to grant the license. “With the current General Plan [approved at the end of 2021] this beach club could not have been built, because the area only allows for residential use. The law also says that, while general plans are under public exhibition, as was the case, the most restrictive regulation must be applied when granting a license… and that was not the case either”, criticizes Riera.

According to the account of those affected, the project for the Cala Mendia beach club, presented by an Ibizan developer, was processed during a brief period in which the subsidiary rules were in force again, before the approval of Manacor's final planning. “They took advantage of that moment to request and obtain the municipal license”.

Article 167 and the definition of an open establishment

The lawsuit filed by the residents is based primarily on article 167 of the subsidiary regulations applicable at that time in the area. According to the plaintiffs, the article allows for public use in all categories and situations, except in open premises. Those affected argue that a beach club is, by definition, an open space. "The project stipulates that there will be 223 outdoor seats and 61 indoor seats, and it is clear that all these glass panels being installed now will later be opened completely, so only the bathrooms and kitchens would remain closed".

The City Council and the developer maintain that the subsidiary regulations from the 80s—which, according to the account of those affected, came back into force during the public exhibition of the new planning in 2021—did not exactly define what an open or closed premise was. "I would be very surprised if a ruling classified a beach club as a closed premise," states Riera.

Doubts about the concession and precedents

Riera questions why the municipal technicians did not detect article 167 or the possible incompatibility of the project. He also does not understand why, as the City Council explained in a meeting with those affected, the license required many meetings before being authorized. For him, these meetings suggest that there were doubts about the operation: “A clear license does not need so many deliberations”.

“We all know precedents of licenses in Mallorca that had to be annulled later in the courts”. Riera cites the controversial bridge in Portocristo, which had to be demolished for non-compliance with regulations in 2011, after only seven years. “If the bridge fell, which was also a public promotion, this building could well fall too”.

“In Cala Mendia there are constructions that today would be impossible to build due to the existence of a green strip and the setbacks from the beach stipulated by the Manacor City Council itself”, says Miquel Àngel Riera from his balcony, from where he can no longer see the beach because of the elevator structure designed by the club to go down to the terraces of the new establishment.

Before filing the lawsuit, the neighbors asked the City Council for an administrative review of the license, “but we did not receive any response”. It was the opportunity for the Council to review the authorization before reaching the courts. Faced with municipal silence, Riera states, they had no choice but to go to the contentious-administrative jurisdiction.

“There is still no fixed date for the trial. But surely the party that loses will appeal before the High Court of Justice”. Riera calculates that the works may be finished in three, four, or five months. “With the appeals, the litigation could drag on for four or five years. During this entire period, we neighbors will have to live with the installation and the inconveniences”.

If the courts end up annulling the license and ordering the work to be demolished, “then the developer could claim damages from the City Council, which would ultimately affect all the people of Manacor”, concludes Riera while looking from the beach at the panorama of works that are advancing rapidly. The workers have covered with tarps the large graffiti in red letters against the construction and overcrowding made just a few days earlier.

The Manacor City Council maintains that it cannot do anything about it. The outgoing mayor, Miquel Oliver, pointed out last week that the project's license had followed all legal procedures and that it could not have been handled in any other way. In a recent meeting of those affected with the Councilor for Urban Planning, Núria Hinojosa, and the area technician, Pedro Puche, the municipal officials "were attentive and said they were sorry, but they did not offer any further solutions either," according to Riera.