Tirajana supports the municipal initiative for a Law of Tourist Municipalities

 

The Plenary Session of the San Bartolomé de Tirajana City Council approved this Friday in an extraordinary session that this municipality joins the other 12 that make up the Association of Tourist Municipalities of the Canary Islands (AMTC), to exercise a municipal legislative initiative aimed at the autonomous Parliament processing and approve your proposal for the Law on Tourist Municipalities of the Canary Islands. 

 

The objective pursued by this 'Special Group' of the Gran Canaria municipalities of San Bartolomé de Tirajana and Mogán; from the Tenerife residents of Arona, Adeje, Guía de Isora, Puerto de la Cruz and Santiago del Teide; of the people of Lanzarote Teguise, Yaiza and Tías, and of the majoreros Pájara, La Oliva and Antigua, is that they be legally recognized with that precise legal-administrative categorization.

 

Defended by tourist councils in different forums for many years, this is the first time that this proposal to legalize tourist recognition is addressed with the perspective of being able to move forward due to its breadth of vision and generalized nature. At the same time, it is also the first time that Canarian municipalities from different islands come together to process a common and specific legislative initiative like this one. 

 

 

 

 

The General Assembly of the AMTC already agreed in its session on June 17 to formalize the 'special grouping' required by local autonomous legislation to undertake the municipal legislative initiative. Specifically, article 44.3 of Organic Law 1/2018 of November 5, reforming the Statute of Autonomy of the Canary Islands grants this initiative to the town councils when they act grouped and as long as they represent the percentage of the population and the number of municipalities that determines the Regulations of the Parliament of the Canary Islands, established precisely in its article 126.5 in a minimum of five town councils that represent at least 10% of the total population of the Canary Islands.

 

At this time, the 'Special Group' of tourist municipalities of the AMTC meets all the requirements to undertake the municipal legislative initiative and promote a Law of Canarian Tourist Municipalities. According to the review of the January 2023 registry, the total population of the Archipelago is 2.202.048 inhabitants, while the populations of the 13 municipalities that promote the legislative initiative together add up to 401.917 inhabitants, that is, 181.712 more than the 220.205 which make up the 10% required by regional legislation. 

 

The motives

 

The draft study of the proposed law on the tourist municipality statute alludes in its explanatory memorandum to the reality of tourist municipalities that experience constant exponential growth in their services, “much greater than that which corresponds exclusively to the number of neighbors.” registered.” The effect of tourism on the municipal management capacity of public services is seen as “a challenge that must entail a revolutionary global conception of the use of the territory, with profound qualitative and quantitative changes in the organizational, urban planning, industrial and commercial spheres. and especially with respect to the provision of public services given that the floating population exponentially increases its management needs", having a notable impact on the maintenance of public spaces and the provision of essential services such as transportation, security, supply of water, cleaning or garbage collection, in addition to requiring a parallel promotion of tourist activity as an economic engine.

 

“The undeniable tourism development in the Islands leads to the indisputable convenience of providing a clear regulatory definition and its own regime to the tourist municipality, as the most effective and efficient way to identify and provide solutions to the peculiar management needs of public services. , currently surpassed by their complexity and constant growth,” the text states. This also postulates that the additional functions and powers assumed by the tourist town councils "are the backbone of the economic development of the municipalities, but also of the globality of each of the Islands and therefore also of the Region." That is why they demand greater autonomy for the development of municipal powers, adapted to a planning model consistent with the characteristics of the territory and the high density of visitors. “The condition of a tourist municipality is a differentiating element that not only identifies localities with a large tourist influx, but also delimits a compendium of special needs for adaptability and disposition of public management that does not represent a burden for competitiveness in the tourism sector and its peculiarities of unpredictability, stationary nature, changing competitive flexibility and demand for continuous interventions by the public administration,” the text states.

 

The Law proposed by the 13 municipalities consists, in addition to the aforementioned explanatory statement, of 30 articles distributed in four titles, five additional provisions, a repealing provision and two final provisions. The first title, dedicated to the General Provisions, is structured in three chapters dedicated to the object, purpose, definitions, powers and principles; to the declaration requirements of the Canary Islands Tourist Municipality; and their rights and obligations, in turn collecting a list of their public tourist services. The second and third titles develop the administrative procedure for obtaining and/or losing the status of Tourist Municipality; and the fourth title focuses on the special administrative organization applicable to it.

 

The objectives

 

Among the objectives that these tourist municipalities must meet are the increase in habitability conditions, paying special attention to the renewal and improvement of the tourist urban environment, and the diversification, renewal and improvement of the existing tourist offer, "avoiding saturation of the destination and guaranteeing sustainable development and the adequate coexistence of the interests of the registered and tourist populations.”

 

The essential purpose of the Law, according to its article 3, is to “promote quality in the provision of public services to the entire registered and tourist population, contributing to sustainable, safer and more satisfactory tourism for both populations, as well as the provision of a municipal administrative organization that is adequately sized, effective, efficient and close to both the citizen and the user of tourist services.”

 

Obligations

 

Among the obligations that tourist municipalities will have to ensure are the conservation and enhancement of free spaces for public use and their equipment, especially green areas, natural landscapes, beaches, sports facilities, public parks and collective leisure and recreation centers; adopt measures to protect and recover the natural environment and landscape, as well as actions to promote sustainable mobility; dedicate a part of the income from the use of tourist resources to their maintenance, protection, improvement and enrichment; and establish communication channels so that interest groups can propose improvements or warn of bad practices in the tourism field with the aim of progressively eradicating them.

 

Regarding obligations regarding specifically touristic public services, municipalities must comply with an environmental surveillance service that includes control of the quality of the environment and the adoption of measures for its preservation; the reinforcement of the cleaning and health service, especially in areas of public use such as walks, streets, squares, gardens, recreational facilities, beaches, mountains and other high-traffic areas; noise control, especially at night; control of noise, light, odor and smoke pollution; the establishment of climatic shade shelters; a surveillance and lifeguard service on beaches and another service of sunbeds, umbrellas and kiosks.

 

A PAMU for the T-1 of El Tablero

 

The City Council takes the initiative to order, manage and execute the completion of this area of ​​145 plots with urban planning and registration problems due to being an unfinished development for 30 years.

 

On the other hand, the Plenary Session of the Corporation also approved in its extraordinary session this Friday a proposal from the Department of Urban Planning for the City Council to request from the Department of Territorial Policy of the Government of the Canary Islands a subsidy of €64.200 that will be used to hire the technical drafting of an Action Program in the Urban Environment (PAMU) for the T-1 area of ​​El Tablero.

 

The City Council has taken the initiative to process said PAMU to order, manage and execute the completion of the aforementioned area and definitively solve the urban planning and registration problems that affect the 145 plots of land because it is an unfinished urbanization in which after more than Three decades after it began, the decisive process of equal distribution of burdens and obligations for the completion of work on sidewalks, vertical and horizontal signage, asphalt and green areas, among others, has not yet been completed. In total there are about 74.813 m² of which 24.426 m² are for residential use, 7.623 m² for free use, 2.686 m² for sports use, 2,390 m² for social use, 19.897 m² of teaching land and 25.789 m² of road network.

 

At this time, the technical specifications for tendering the contracting of the PAMU are already being drafted. The department headed by Davinia Ramírez estimates that - if the Department of Territorial Policy grants the subsidy - the contract could be awarded before the end of 2024, and the draft document will be available throughout the year 2025, after submitting it to consideration. of the environmental body, the initial approval, the allegations process and the final approval.