Another aggression of the Omnibus Law on the territory: fewer restrictions for the seagulls on the coast
The norm repeals one of Gabriel Company's few actions in favor of the environment: reducing the sizes and occupancies of bars in public domain
PalmaThe Omnibus Law was intended to be an instrument to regulate strategic business projects and will go down in history as one of the most deregulatory norms regarding territorial and environmental matters. Among its provisions, there is one that eliminates the restrictions that the Government (former PP minister Gabriel Company) had promoted to limit the establishment of catering businesses in the maritime-terrestrial public domain.
The modification entirely replaces article 18 of the 2013 order, which regulated seasonal facilities on beaches, and renders ineffective the limitations that the Autonomous Community had imposed until now. Dismountable establishments for the sale of food and beverages could not exceed 20 square meters and had to maintain a minimum separation of 100 meters from other similar establishments. In the case of fixed ones, the maximum authorized area was 150 square meters, of which only 100 could correspond to enclosed spaces. In addition, they had to be located at a minimum distance of 200 meters from other businesses with similar characteristics.
The Balearic regulation went even further. When calculating these distances, not only concessions located on the sand were taken into account. Bars and restaurants within the protection servitude zone, i.e., outside the public domain, but on the first coastline, were also considered.
This allowed new concessions to be denied when an equivalent offering already existed in the area, which was the philosophy of the Coastal Law: "That only the essential facilities that cannot be found elsewhere be within the public domain." An establishment could comply with the state coastal regulations and, despite this, not obtain authorization because there was a similar business less than 100 or 200 meters away.
The new wording eliminates these limitations of the regional regulations. From now on, the dimensions, minimum distances, occupation limits, and concession conditions will be regulated exclusively by state coastal legislation. The consequence is that the specific restrictions that the Balearic Islands had decided to impose to protect the maritime-terrestrial public domain disappear, which were more demanding than those generally provided for by state regulations in aspects such as the dimensions of establishments and the separation from other businesses.
The case of the Alcúdia beach bars
The modification comes after years of controversy over various seasonal concessions on the Balearic coast. One of the best-known cases is that of the kiosks on Alcúdia beach, denounced by the GOB. denounced by the GOB.
The rule that now disappears required taking into account not only the distance between concessions on the beach, but also the existence of bars and restaurants within the protection servitude. This criterion allowed for the evaluation of the overall commercial pressure on each stretch of coastline and had been the subject of debate in various proceedings related to seasonal concessions. Legal sources consulted by ARA Balears have not dared to assess whether these facilities specifically lie behind this modification, "but, in any case, it is clear that behind it are the interests
of the kiosk sector, who want them bigger and closer together," confirms one source.
Another modification hidden within an omnibus law
The change has not been processed through a specific reform of the coastal regulations nor through a monographic debate on the management model of the beaches. The modification appears incorporated into the fifty-fourth final provision of an omnibus law that alters dozens of regulations on matters as diverse as agriculture, transport, administrative organization, and the tax system.
This is one of the aspects that environmental and land defense entities have been criticizing for years. According to these organizations, administrative simplification laws "have become a way to introduce substantial modifications in territorial, urban, and environmental matters without subjecting them to specific public debate," the GOB has said on several occasions.
Critics consider that reforms that directly affect the planning of the coastline and the occupation of public domain should be the subject of their own processing, with public information and specific discussion on the consequences.
Beyond the political assessment, the result is that the limits that for more than a decade had restricted the size of beach bars, their proximity to other establishments, and the possibility of authorizing new concessions in stretches of coast where a consolidated catering offer already existed, disappear from the Balearic regulations.
