Costa Rica- will they finally get a grip on development?

FINALLY! A subject about Costa Rica we can all talk about!

Foreigners developing on the coast are handicapped because there are little or no guidelines for development. Guidelines for developers come from regulatory or zoning plans. These plans are — in theory — designed to align the land and human activities to the best use of resources without depleting those resources.

In the past, foreigners interested in developing have skirted the rules, especially in the maritime zone. In many cases, they have had to do so because no coherent rules were in place. Today, the Costa Rican government is finally trying to regulate growth and building, especially on the coasts with integral territorial zoning plans. Each one will encompass large areas. These integral plans are coming for areas all over the country.

My fear is that this is all too little too late. The developers who've started the ravaging have long-range 10-20 year plans for the coast. The government may SAY that they'll curb or regulate development, but the fact is that they probably have no real power to stop it. One good Tico friend of mine said that the reason politicians run for office in Costa Rica is so they can get paid off by the developers. They get VERY rich, socking their money away in some account in Panama that no one will ever hear of or see.

One very important integral coastal plan on the drawing board right now and of special interest to the government is for the Hermosa, El Coco and Bahía Azul area of Guanacaste. The government wants this plan to showcase its interest in sustainable development and promote investment. This plan includes an area of 200.5 hectares or 495.5 acres.

Yet, there's a planned construction of a "Club Nikki" right by Coco. In fact, I think it already started. And you can bet that other mega-luxury resorts will soon follow. It's the whole precedence factor. Once a mega-property gets built, it gives other developers the argument of precedence that gets them able to get exemptions and in fact total changes to coastal plans so they can get their mega-money properties built.

In Costa Rica a zoning plan for an area is referred to as a plan regulador. In the past, municipalities have had little or no money to create zoning plans. In urban areas this fact means there has been building with no planning. Development with no planning means no organization, and many subdivisions throughout the Central Valley and on the coast are suffering today because of this lack of planning and organization.

I think you need to understand something here Tim. These bureaucracies are set up solely to show the APPEARANCE that planning or some kind of approval process is in place. The developers end up getting their way no matter what. Money talks and nobody's going to turn away big bucks just so a stretch of coast can remain pristine. They will rationalize the plan as being "good" for the coastline and good for the environment, and THAT'S why it's being built. It's nauseating.

In the maritime zone, within the 150-meter restricted area, something else has happened over the years. Private interests that wanted to develop property paid for zoning plans to suit their needs. Many municipalities throughout Costa Rica accepted the privately funded plans to raise their tax bases. In some cases, municipal officials personally enriched themselves working with private companies on these zoning plans. Others just built without permission period.

Oh, they had permission alright, it was just given under the table in a non-official stance.

To get a concession from the country in the restricted area of the maritime zone a regulatory plan must be in place. Concessions are the vehicle people and companies use to make money in the restricted area. For example, to build a condominium or a resort in this area, the country must license the use — through a concession — to the individual or company. Only Costa Rican citizens are allowed to hold a concession. However, this is another one of the rules everyone skirts by using Costa Ricans as puppets when applying for a concession.

This is so blatantly obvious, and everybody knows it. It's all done for show. You really don't think any of this is going to change do you? And do you think that you, or anyone else for that matter is going to make a difference about this? This is all common knowledge the Ticos KNOW what is being done in their own country. At some point, all they can do is fight for self-preservation

The Procuraduría, the attorney general's office of the country, has tried hard to curb these practices, but officials have not had much success to date. Many people in Costa Rica bend the rules and seemingly appear to get away with doing so.

Oh... suuuurrre they have. Sorry if I sound cynical, but if you REALLY think that the attorney general or any investigative body has any teeth or integrity to stop these practices, you're in serious hopeful denial. It is NOT going to happen. Everybody in all echelons is busy dipping their beaks in the trough, while the developers get their way.

The reason the Costa Rican government wants the Hermosa, El Coco and Bahía Azul coastal zoning plan in place so badly is because the country wants to prove to the world it knows how to plan sustainable development. The government wants to provide developers a set of rules they can use in planning and get rid of the surprises that currently plague those trying to do something in Costa Rica. This plan is indeed different for the following reasons:

Well, they've already proven that they can't do it. When the whole "eco-tourism" boom started in Costa Rica in the late 80's and early 90's, the whole idea was that they would be able to preserve their natural resources AND maintain a sound tourism industry. That lasted less than 3 years. When the hotels and condos started hitting the coastlines (starting in, of all places Tamarindo and Jaco), the eco-tourism aspect became an after thought. I know this because I was in the travel business in those days, and we were marketing Costa Rica as an eco-destination. The very same tourism board that we were working with on eco-tourism, started sending us different options for beachside packages, fly/drive, resort packages, and so on. They became just another beach destination after that. Despite all the good stuff going on in the interior.

1. The project is being paid for by the Instituto Costarricense de Turismo — the tourism institute — not private companies or local municipalities. The plan is designed to promote local as well as international tourism as well as investment.

Whoever is sponsoring the plan, you can be ASSURED that the development sector has their fingers on the "plan" and the final plan will have all kinds of loopholes and exemptions to suit them. And even if they don't have it in black and white, they will still just end up doing what they want and nothing will be enforced.

Area that is subject to the zoning plan runs about 13 kilometers (about 8 miles ) along the Pacific in northwest Costa Rica.

2. It is designed to organize and plan future development.

3. Protecting the environment and natural resources is a core objective of the plan.

4. Increasing the security of concessions for those people who have obtained them is of key importance to promote foreign investment.

5. The taxes generated in sectors where there are integral plans will help the municipalities improve and maintain important infrastructure. This is a serious problem for coastal projects today.

6. Access to public zones will be enhanced for Costa Ricans.

There is also another very important element to the new zoning plans on the coast, one everyone with property in the maritime zone should know. Any structures within the 50-meter zone will be inventoried and probably be torn down. Some structures have already been demolished. This is the public area from the mean high tide line to a point 50 meters inland.

Structures within the 150 meters restricted zone also will be inventoried and analyzed. The analysis will be to determine whether or not the structures are legal. Structures that were built without permission and permits also will be torn down.

Many people in Costa Rica adhere to the unwritten guideline that it is better to ask for forgiveness than permission. In the cases where people used this method of building in the restricted zone, it may very well be the cause for the demolition of whatever they built.

Those who have obeyed the rules and followed the correct procedures will have their properties on the coast and in the maritime zone enhanced by the new coastal zoning plans. Hopefully, one of the first ones for Hermosa, El Coco and Bahía Azul area will be everything it is cracked up to be, a serious plan for sustainable development and increased foreign investment.

Hey, we can only hope that all this will have a beneficial effect. But I believe that the reason all this is being done in Guanacaste is because they already know what is going to be built there and where. All this will be mere window dressing, meant to placate some whiny residents. Again, I believe that it's all too little too late. We'll just have to see.

How do you say COVER UP in Spanish?

Maintaining a sound economy is a direct responsibility of the government

Now that is not reality, anywhere in the Americas....including the USA....what a mess we have now.

Many Costa Ricans are infuriated by foreign interests buying up coastal land for condominiums and closing off access to the beach. Foreign developers also force up the price of coastal land so that Costa Ricans can no longer buy in their own country. This was an angry complaint I heard again and again while riding thru Costa Rica on my way south to Argentina and again on my ride north.
Do they have grounds for complaint?
I don't know. I merely report conversations.

Of COURSE they have grounds for complaint. These people are the ones who've been paying taxes into a system for generations that is supposed to be PROTECTING THEM! Beach and shoreline access is something that is supposed to be guaranteed to all Ticos in their constitution. Maintaining a sound economy is a direct responsibility of the government. The working class Ticos are being pushed into lives of indentured servitude, because they will always be victims of low wages, poor services, and will not be able to thrive on the exploitation of the foreign developers and residents. Worse, the PROFITS generated from all this development will NEVER trickle down to them. If I was a Tico, I'd be TOTALLY outraged, and probably would have been killed off by now.

After all, it is the Ticos that are selling off their country. I often wondered why they just don't let the US annex Costa Rica. I can see lots of pluses for the Ticos.

"Selling"? you mean SOLD. But the problem is that the land was sold off by the Ticos part and parcel for a SMIDGEN of the prices that are being paid by foreign buyers and investors. One guy I know bought 500 acres of land in Guanacaste in 1986 or so for about $500 an acre. He sold off each acre 15 years later for $50,000 an acre. How did the Tico who sold him the land that cheap back in '86 benefit from that sale? Exactly.

Most of the land that is being bought and sold has already gone through the mill at least once or twice. There is not much Tico involvement or benefit from sale, unless you buy an acre or hectare directly from a Tico family at the SPECULATED market price.

How do you say COVER UP in Spanish?

Here in Colombia, they use, simply "La Cubra" and believe me there's a lot of "Cubra" going on here. :P

There have been many a Ticos making lots and lots of money selling their land, the fact is, they sold it, dont blame foreigners for buying it.

They sold it at the prices that the market supported at the time. If you think for a moment that the Ticos saw the tidal wave of development coming to their sleepy little country that barely had roads and even electricity in some places, surely they would have thought twice or at least held out for more money. You gotta understand, the Ticos had no idea that a "speculative" market that had nothing to do with local factors even existed. They were duped.

And even so, I keep saying that, just because you CAN do something, doesn't mean you should. Just because you can exploit a whole country, doesn't mean that it was the right thing to do. And you can bet that at some point, there's gonna be hell to pay.

Remember the Villaboos investment company that went under after the long arm of Uncle Sam nailed their tax shelters and shut the company down the brothers fled in all directions? Well that company was paying a 4% to 10% interest on lending others money, and lost of Ticos did very well, not just Gringos, they created a huge slew of wealth for the Ticos, and when that collapsed, a frenzy of land sales ensued, as Ticos need to cash to manage their large Fincas and businesses, and keep their standard of living, with ranch hands, housekeepers, cooks, drivers and security details. When you see a Range Rover, a Mercedes or BMW or Porsche in CR, its normally got a Tico in it, not a gringo.

The Villaboos meltdown was a drop in the bucket compared to the overall money that was pumped into this market. And some "noveau riche" Ticos couldn't spend all their money fast enough. Frugality and investment planning wasn't their strongest suit.

Playa Flamingo was a direct result of the underworld in CR, hand in hand now with Colombian money launderers, the Marina defunct, used to be huge 60ft fishing charters, bus loads of whores on weekends, junkets of foreign businessman on "Fishing trips" and everybody was making money, the Casinos in Flamingo were making a ton..now its a ghost town. Go figure!

That's what happens when the bottom falls out. You know what I find especially ironic though? Is that despite the relative meltdown in Flamingo, there is STILL new construction going ON!!!! There are still new hotels, townhouses and whole subdivisions being built all over the place between Portrero and Tamarindo! Why? Because it's CHEAP for them to buy and build compared to what they can sell the units. If they can't sell the condos for $200K, they'll drop the price down to $100K or $80K. They will STILL make money. In the meantime, screw the shoreline, screw the landscape, screw the environment and SCREW the local economy. Lovely huh?

It's very bad on the south pacific side as well. Check this out.

http://www.ventanasdelpacifico.biz/stories.php

The irony is that in a nation of farmers and coffee growers the beach land was historically considered pretty worthless and bestowed to the least favored child. Hard to grow anything, far too hot and buggy for most it was rambling communities of the poor and dispossessed who ended up there. Fishing in communities has always contributed only a tiny part of the economy. Even today, most Ticos I know are stunned that gringos are prepared to pay what they do and its hardly surprising that that they have clammered to sell it.
We shouldn't forget that a lot of Ticos have got wealthy doing this, but sadly for others who had no idea of how to handle the money, it hasn't improved their lives at all.

Jim, I agree on everything you said but one thing. Only an inordinate few Ticos gained from this "boom", and they were for the most part already wealthy. They were the Castilian families who originally owned much of the arable land since Costa Rica was incorporated and from Spanish colonial days that sold and/or leased smaller parcels to the families who lived and cultivated the land.

The ones who had the land, and sold later to the developers, did so at pennies on the dollar of what those parcels sold for after they were out of the loop.

Hey, at least isnt not like Venezuela and Bolivia, giving the land back to the people, wait till Nicaragua wants to shove out all the gringos....

One of the reasons I think that Nicaragua will stay "outrageous gringo-boom-free" for some time. The chances of this happening is a huge reality, regardless of what the realtor tells you about how solid your deed is.

I am all for peasants and original indians having their land that is rightfully theirs, but not in attempt to sabotage legal title holders without reimbursing them....

Well, the PROBLEM is that old claims on land in these parts can go back HUNDREDS of years. Can you imagine the process involved in clearing a title with that much back-history on it??? Yet, people think buying a property in CA is a breeze!!!!

Of course, the US screwed the native indians out of some the finest land in the country...maybe they are following the Britts example....Colonialism at its worst.

The US is definitely no better, but at least they made an ATTEMPT to give back some land to the native americans. Granted it was dry desert that nothing can grow on for the most part, but the best irony is that the indians used their independent status to exploit the white man by selling tax-free booze, cigarettes, and of course, casinos. Now, at least alot of them can have decent lives because of it. Are they greedy? Hell yeah they are, but they deserve to be. At least the legitimate ones.