Tamarindo Residents Protest Against Illegal Construction
Upset with all the illegal construction, some 50 residents of the Pacific coast town of Tamarindo decided to have a day of protest on Saturday. The main focus of the protest is the construction of a commercial centre smack in the centre of an already overbuilt area, authorized by the Municipalidad de Santa Cruz.

The authorization was given even though the Plan Regulador - Town Regulating Plan - that defines the area of construction to be "green space" for public use, both for the by residents and tourists visiting the area.

The protests stem from a decision by the Santacruceño municipality that allowed a private construction company and an investor - the identity of either not made public - to enter the Parque Independencia to start moving dirt, erect construction barracades and began to erect concrete walls.

The Plan Regulador currently in place clearly establishes that the park is a public area and is to be used for recreational purposes. An agreement that is place until March 2007, signed by the municipality and the Asociación Pro Mejoras de Playa Tamarindo gave the group the right to administer the park.

When the municipality saw the mood of the local residents it suspended work on the project some three weeks after they began, but never forced the construction workers off the property, nor did it move to take down thw walls that had been erected.

And that was the reason for the protest group to take action on Saturday, an action that saw the taking down of the store rooms and work areas of the construction workers and an attempt to take down the concrete walls erected.

The protestors say that in May the municipality permitted a "cambio de use de suelo" - a change of use of the lands - without the required process under the Ley de Planificación Urbana (Urban Planning Law) to change the use from a park to a commercial centre.

The lack of authorization, which can only be granted by the Instituto de Vivienda y Urbanisom, the Secretaría Técnica Nacional del Ambiente and the Instituto Costarricense de Turismo, will mean legal consequences for municipal authorities who approved the change that goes against the Plan Regulador.

Neither ther construction company or the "investment" group who is financing the project is explaining how they got the authorization.

For more information, contact the Luis Castrillo, press agent for the Asociación Pro Mejoras de Playa Tamarindo,, at 3639921 or the association directly  at  6531679.