Translator: Machine translation with human review
The First Chamber rejected the appeal filed by JBR Capital Ventures against the ruling of the Administrative Court (TCA), which had upheld the temporary construction regulations in the buffer zone of the Ostional National Wildlife Refuge.
An appeal is a mechanism for requesting a court to review a ruling in light of a possible error in the application or interpretation of the law.
The First Chamber found that the municipality acted in accordance with its constitutional duty to protect the ecosystem. “Consequently, the Municipality acted in accordance with its constitutional duty to protect the environment by determining the existence of a serious and irreversible threat to protected species, such as the olive ridley sea turtles in this case, thousands of which nest in the Ostional Reserve,” the ruling states.
The regulation, spearheaded by the Nosara Civic Association (NCA) and approved by the Municipality of Nicoya in February 2020, has been on hold since June 2021 due to a complaint filed with the TCA by JBR Capital Ventures, owned by Nosara businessman Jeffrey Grosshandler.
What do the regulations entail? The regulations limit building size, the buildable area relative to the total lot size, and wastewater management, and they regulate lighting to protect the hundreds of sea turtles that come to nest at the sanctuary.
Five Years of Dispute
Grosshandler filed the appeal after the TCA rejected his complaint on October 11, 2023, and ruled in favor of the regulations. For Grosshandler, who owns three properties within the buffer zone, the regulations limit his ability to develop, invest in, and increase the value of the three properties he owns within the buffer zone.
In his appeal, the businessman insisted that the municipality imposed these temporary regulations without having a valid zoning plan in place. Furthermore, he argued that the measure was invalid because the Ostional Wildlife Refuge Law, No. 9348 (which governs the refuge), was declared unconstitutional in 2022 by the Constitutional Chamber.
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