Los vendedores en una playa

In memoriam; Harold Hotelling;

The secretary of state for the environment, Federico Ramos, captured the essence of the law with the following sentence: “Whatever impact has already been done, let us make the most of it.”

The new regulations developing the Coast Law make a distinction between urban beaches and natural beaches. In the latter, beach bars will have a maximum surface area of 70 square meters and be made entirely of collapsible elements. The minimum distance between chiringuitos will be 300 meters.

But urban chiringuitos will be allowed to take up 300 square meters, up from 150, and stand no more than 75 meters from one another if their activities are “dissimilar.”

Urban beaches will also be allowed to host public events “with a tourism impact,” including all kinds of sports and cultural events as long as they have “national or international impact.” Licenses will be granted by local authorities after securing a favorable report from the regional government. Visual or audio advertising, which used to be banned, will be allowed in exceptional cases for authorized leisure and sports activities. 

And they want to do a little something to resolve their real estate crisis (finally);

The Coast Law also backtracks on the previous Socialist government's attempt to undo the worst excesses of the construction boom by declaring homes on the shoreline illegal and unfit for sales transactions. Now, these homes may be sold again. As for those standing right behind the beach line, the ban on structural reforms has been lifted, allowing owners to make the alterations they see fit as long as they get permits for the work.