The draft preliminary bill seeks to adapt the 1988 national Coastal Law to the reality of the archipelago, simplify the management of a coastline where the population and tourism activity are concentrated, and strengthen legal certainty. It includes significant changes for beach services, tourism activities and the renovation of beachfront facilities.
Spain’s current Coastal Law was passed in 1988 and, although the Constitutional Court recognised the principle of “concurrent competences” in its judgment 149/1991, until recently almost no autonomous community had legislated in this area.
In the Constitutional Court’s view, State ownership of the public domain does not cancel out the sectoral competences of the autonomous communities, but neither may the latter strip of substance the State’s power of protection, particularly as regards its exclusive competences, such as determining what constitutes a beach or defining the maritime-terrestrial zone through demarcation proceedings. Accordingly, the State controls the maritime-terrestrial public domain (DPMT) under Article 149.1.20 of the Spanish Constitution, while the autonomous communities act on the basis of their competences in land-use and urban planning (Article 148.1.3 of the Constitution) and in coastal planning as set out in their Statutes of Autonomy.
Catalonia was the first to legislate, with Law 8/2020 on the protection and planning of the coastline, followed by Galicia with Law 4/2023 on the planning and integrated management of the coastline, which the Constitutional Court has upheld almost in its entirety. The remaining coastal regions are governed by the national law, although several of them have signed joint declarations calling for greater management powers and common interpretation criteria, or for a reform of the national law to adapt it to the reality of each territory.
The Canary Islands have just published their Preliminary Coastal Bill, which is now open for public consultation and responds to the unique nature of the islands and the protection of their coastal settlements.
The Canary Islands Government relies on the exclusive competence over coastal planning and management granted to it by the 2018 Statute of Autonomy. The text starts from a diagnosis: the Canary Islands coastline is 1,526 kilometres long, but it is a discontinuous space made up of the coasts of the eight islands and the islets, in or around which 80% of the population lives and where the main economic activities, particularly tourism, are concentrated. The draft is based on three principles: adapting the national rules to the island reality, simplifying regulation and providing legal certainty.
The most significant change for the tourism sector is that the former seasonal services will be renamed beach services, because on the islands these services must be provided all year round to counter seasonality. Each municipal council will draw up a beach services project valid for four years, in which it will define the areas for leisure, cleaning, lifeguarding and maintenance, and it will be able to add new compatible services without revising the entire project. Municipal councils will also collect the revenue from their operation, which may result in destinations with very different service levels depending on each municipality’s management capacity.
On urban stretches of beach, terraces linked to restaurants may be authorised, whether the restaurants are located inside or outside the public domain, provided they do not obstruct passage or public use of the promenade. Occupation is subject to limits: a minimum strip of 10 metres from the high-tide line must be kept clear, or 6 metres if the beach is not wide enough, operated stretches may not exceed 100 metres, and the ends of the beach must always remain clear. Nautical sports activities must respect a clear strip of at least 20 metres, which may be reduced to 15 depending on the configuration of the beach, and use buoyed channels.
For the first time, rock pools and bathing areas are recognised as spaces distinct from beaches, with their own rules, and may have toilets and food and drink outlets, among other services. Jetties used for tourist boat trips may also be enabled as bathing areas, with appropriate separation.
On urban stretches, events of general interest with a tourism impact may be authorised, such as those declared of tourist interest or sporting and cultural events with regional, national or international reach. On natural stretches, by contrast, they will only be permitted where the natural resource makes it impossible to hold them elsewhere, while audiovisual productions may be authorised on both types of stretch.
Waves and surf breaks declared of island interest will enjoy special protection compatible with surfing and windsurfing, and the island councils (cabildos) will regulate anchoring and diving areas and manage the related authorisations.
Within the protection strip, tourism works, facilities and activities will be considered “suitable” for the use of the public domain where they are provided for in the planning instruments. The text also clarifies concepts that had raised doubts, such as the inclusion of swimming pools or mini-golf among open-air sports facilities.
The draft provides for a special protection and planning regime for traditional coastal settlements, that is, groups of buildings located in the maritime-terrestrial public domain or in its easement zones that have ethnographic, historical, architectural, cultural or picturesque value, or that are linked to maritime or fishing activities or to the enjoyment of the coast.
The text also reduces red tape: where a project requires several coastal permits, they may be requested in a single application and resolved in a single procedure. For works on lawful buildings that do not increase their volume, height or floor area, a statement of compliance (declaración responsable) filed with the municipal council will suffice, which is relevant for renovating beachfront accommodation stock. Authorisations and concessions will be subject to a maximum resolution period of six months and, if the authorities do not respond within that period, they will be deemed refused.
New obligations are also introduced, such as a ban on parking caravans, motorhomes and camper vans in the public domain and its easement zones outside designated areas. In addition, every coastal planning instrument must address the risks of coastal erosion and include climate change adaptation measures, and a consultative Coastal Forum is created with the participation of economic and social organisations.
Finally, the preliminary bill regulates the rehabilitation and regeneration of stretches of coast: where a stretch has been heavily transformed by human activity and is degraded, it allows a reasoned request to be made to the General State Administration to amend the demarcation and remove the stretch from the public domain. In addition, the Canary Islands Government may approve planning schemes for stretches of the coastline, including beaches, in only three cases: where it considers municipal planning insufficient, where there are continuous beaches across different municipalities that should be planned uniformly, or where coastal protection and sustainable development require it in order to recover those stretches.
Pending completion of its legislative process and, where applicable, its final approval, the preliminary bill aims to improve the quality of the sun-and-beach tourism offering. It is expected to concentrate intensive use on urban stretches, which will have more tools to generate returns, such as terraces, events and year-round services, while preserving natural stretches, where use will be more limited. It will also prioritise renovation over growth, since it will be easier to modernise existing buildings than to construct new volumes on the beachfront.
In short, the draft seeks to strike a balance between the coastline as a natural resource and as a foundation for economic activity.
