In 2006 and 2007, construction began on a resort in the Valdecañas region in Western Spain. An artificial island sits there, which according to environmentalists, is a special protection area for birds.
Instead, construction began there to make an artificial beach, golf course, yacht club berths, a high-class hotel, and 185 villas. The environmentalists groups did not take kindly to this and began a legal battle that has been going on for 14-years.
Apparently the Spanish legal system can move just as slowly as the American one and the threat of legal action didn’t stop development on the resort. As it continued to grow, there was a setback for the properties expansion when a decision was reached in 2020 that no new construction should take place. Demolition of the properties in general was ruled out due to claims that they were not damaging the environment and that the government would have to foot the bill for said demolition if they did.
Surely other economic factors played a role in this too considering the potential revenue draw of the resort. The villas alone had a starting price of 500,000 euros, which at the time of this writing would be about $567,515; but hey, maybe you get free golf lessons to make it worth it. Considering these homes indeed have owners, they too would have to be compensated, which is yet another reason why demolition aws ruled out in 2020.
Then came a new ruling on Tuesday, February 8th, that the whole thing needs to come down. The highest court in Spain made the ruling but according to CNN, Guillermo Fernández Vara, the governor for the Extramadura region of Spain may try to appeal the decision to the constitutional court. Considering the cost of the demolition and reimbursement of the home owners there, it’s hard to call that a surprising move.
Apparently the Extramadura government aren’t the only ones upset about this. In trying to research more about this case I came across an article from GolfMagic.com that says the golf course will, “sadly be demolished.” I guess they’re not exactly taking the side of the environmentalists. Also, in trying to find out more about the resort side of things, I came across this article from ClubandResortBusiness.com which was completely unhelpful. It is however, hysterical because all it does is mostly repeated the CNN article on the subject and ends every small paragraph with the phrase “CNN reported.” It literally uses the phrase ten times and doesn’t even bother to change things up by saying something like, “according to CNN” or “in a report from CNN.”
In the end I guess that article and the potentially demolished island share something in common; they’re for the birds.
