On Thursday, July 11, the Municipality of Santa Cruz recovered a space in Flamingo Beach’s Maritime Land Zone (Spanish acronym: ZMT) occupied for eight years by a bar & restaurant.
In response to a judicial eviction order issued on May 23 by the Contentious Administrative Court, municipal machinery removed stones, logs, sewer system remains, wood and other debris placed in front of Coco Loco Bar & Restaurant. The establishment had placed it illegally to prevent the waves from entering the terrace-type area where they placed umbrellas, tables and chairs to serve their customers.
The public area had become an extension of the bar & restaurant and, according to the establishment’s social networks, it was highly coveted by visitors for its privileged view of the ocean and for being close to the beach.
The municipal inspector of the Municipality of Santa Cruz’s Maritime Land Zone department, Max Abarca, explained that although they didn’t have a structure as such in the place, they had made a type of retaining wall to prevent the natural landslide that occurs in coastal areas.
This space was taken over after a conditional use permit that the Municipality of Santa Cruz itself granted in 2016 to the owner of Coco Loco Bar & Restaurant, French chef Jean-Luc Paul Taulére, for care and maintenance of the ZMT’s public area.
According to the Contentious Court’s file 23-000574-1027-CA–9, the approval for the use of that area was granted unanimously by the Santa Cruz Municipal Council during the session of March 16, 2016, in response to a petition from the company Comidas de la Costa S.A., directed by Taulere.
In the agreement, the council members made it clear to the company that “they are not allowed to carry out permanent or temporary constructions” and that they also had to “maintain free access to users of the Public Zone.”
However, according to the file, the businessman disregarded these conditions and “built a terrace, stacked limestone, placed logs, chairs, tables and umbrellas,” thereby altering the place’s morphology.
This furniture, the document adds, hindered movement through the public area and caused pollution, affecting the place’s ecosystems.
This motivated a series of actions by the municipal mayor, Jorge Arturo Alfaro Orias, who took the case to the Contentious Court, supported by technical reports from several agencies.
The municipal inspector specified that several preventive steps had been made toward this business. In addition, chairs, tables and umbrellas located in the public area had already been confiscated.
Consulted by The Voice of Guanacaste, Taulére lashed out against the Santa Cruz mayor for “persecuting them” and for not applying the law equally to everyone. In addition, he pointed out that Alfaro had recorded “a lot of things that are not true” in the Contentious Court file.
He wrote down that we had an iron construction with concrete, a platform… and he sent a backhoe to remove those things that didn’t exist,” he said.
The businessman added that he is analyzing filing an appeal for protection “to show the judge that all the information the mayor wrote down was false.”
Taulére did acknowledge that the restaurant placed tables, chairs and sun umbrellas in the public area. He said that every day they placed them and then removed them, but they didn’t have anything permanent.
The businessman admitted that the property was illegally occupying a public area and impeded the free movement of people, but he questioned that many businesses do it and the municipality doesn’t intervene. “If you go to Tamarindo and walk along the beach, there are 10, 12 restaurants with real construction: walls, roofs, electricity and bar equipment, which we had none of that,” he criticized.
Since 2016, Coco Loco Bar & Restaurant used to place umbrellas, tables and chairs to welcome its customers in the public area of the Maritime Land Zone.Photo: Facebook Coco Loco
Long road to demolition
The recovery of the area in front of Coco Loco had to wait years and overcome multiple procedures. Although the municipal mayor’s office had tried to take control of the area since 2022, an agreement by the municipal council prevented it.
The council members accepted a ruling from the government and administration commission that a lengthy due process had to be followed for the businessman before recovering the area.
That agreement was vetoed by the mayor, but during the session of January 3, 2023, the municipal council also rejected the veto, so the case ended up being raised before the Contentious Court.
The council members’ allegation was that “the revocation of a conditional permit should not be untimely” and they sought to prevent the administration from committing “arbitrary” actions.
In the final resolution of May 23, the Contentious Court clarified that permits to use the public domain may be revoked for reasons of opportunity or convenience without responsibility from the mayor’s office. Of course, the revocation shouldn’t be untimely or arbitrary and, in all cases, a reasonable period of time must be allowed for compliance with the revocation action.
The public nature of the Maritime Land Zone, or the impact on the public domain of the coastal area, is unquestionable and beyond controversy,” the Court clarified.
This body also ordered performing an environmental impact study to determine the possible effects due to the occupation of the area in conflict since 2016, as well as for the eventual preparation of a repair plan in said area, in the event that the studies justify and determine doing so.
More demolitions pending
The Voice of Guanacaste asked Inspector Max Abarca how many demolition orders they have pending. The official did not specify but affirmed that he has made “innumerable notifications” due to invasion of the public area in Tamarindo, Junquillal and Playa Real, among others.
He added that in one operation in Tamarindo alone, two years ago, they notified about 30 businesses due to placing tables, chairs and umbrellas in the public area.
On the other hand, the Internal Audit of the Municipality of Santa Cruz sent a warning on April 2 of this year to the municipal mayor, Jorge Arturo Alfaro Orias, about two more judicial resolutions of the Contentious Court that order demolitions in the Maritime Land Zone and that have not been executed.
With this Warning Service, the Administration is reminded of the obligatory duty to comply with the judicial orders issued and take the necessary actions for their corresponding execution, guaranteeing due process according to each case,” specifies the note signed by auditor Luis Bernardo Barrantes.
At the moment, in front of Coco Loco Restaurant & Bar in Flamingo, there is now free movement through the public area. According to the owner of the premises, Jean-Luc Paul Taulére, the municipal intervention affected them greatly and he had to lay off six people because they only have tables and chairs inside the property.
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