Propiedad Privada
I tried to stop in at Pools/Albercas, one of my favorite breaks - that only works with the summer storm systems, to check the access situation (there’s been rumors) and much to my dismay, there is a new security gate that denied me access to the road that passes near the break. I was under the impression that A. The road is built on top of a river bed, what would be designated as “Federal Zone” (hence illegal to put in a gate or deny access without laborious and costly, federal permits - which I highly doubt they have) and B. The road itself was not deeded property of the condominium association that owns the Punta Del Burro property, so it would be illegal for the association to deny access to the road. We’ll have to do some due diligence.
This gets to the heart of a serious problem happening all up and down the coast between La Cruz and Punta Mita and one that I’ve been reticent to write about. Access to our handful of surf breaks is slowly being choked off one by one, as is the access to each of the local swimming beaches. People point fingers and say that it’s the Gringos, but I don’t think it’s that simple.
The past four years has seen an explosion of land development along this coast. Land exchanged hands, plans drawn up, permits filed and now building is starting to happen everywhere. Relatively rapidly, access to sacred surf breaks are being choked off by developers and homeowners associations, who don’t want people accessing the beaches from what usually amounts to lot boundary lines and semi-dry riverbeds.
This is a heavy and laborious subject and requires more than a simple post, so I guess I’m committing myself to a series of posts that will in all likeliness just graze the surface of the unintended problems real estate development is creating, in the bay.
For now, I’ll point you to Vida Cadu Cada, the blog of a recently enacted local civil association whose raison d’etre is to work with local, state and national authorities to secure access for surfers to these sites. I’ve kinda signed on, to help with the english speaking contingent.
