The Prosecutor's Office files a complaint against the ‘illegal town‘ of Lomo Negro

The Provincial Prosecutor's Office of Santa Cruz de Tenerife has launched a criminal case against the alleged illegal segregation and construction of a "town" that has grown in the shadow of El Fraile, in the south of the island over the past 12 years, known as Lomo Negro.

Over a hundred houses have been erected on agricultural protected land, despite multiple warnings and notices about its illegality. This prompted the then Minister of Ecological Transition of the Canary Islands Government, José Antonio Valbuena, to file a complaint at the Prosecutor's Office for these actions, which was made public in July of this year.

From those warnings, legal action has now ensued. The Prosecutor's Office has formally filed charges against the owner of the 150,000 square metres of land on which this new town has emerged seemingly out of nowhere. However, while some may have profited, others are on the verge of losing a significant part of their investments.

ILLEGAL STRUCTURES AND SERVICES:
Building residential structures on agricultural classified land is prohibited, and services or supplies, such as water and electricity, are not permitted. However, despite this, 200 residents of Lomo Negro are registered in the Arona City Council, with up to ten water connections granted before 2015.

Not all people living there fall into this category, as many either rent (including holiday rentals) or operate businesses, such as a hardware store. They receive water weekly in tanks and have solar panels.

The file from the Provincial Prosecutor's Office of Santa Cruz de Tenerife explicitly notes the prosecutor's consideration that the events in Lomo Negro "present characteristics of a crime against territorial planning committed in Arona." As a result, the owner of the land is requested to be investigated - formerly known as the accused. Such crimes can lead to imprisonment, fines, disqualification, and the obligation to restore the altered order, which may involve demolishing buildings erected on the plots acquired by residents for prices starting from 29,000 euros.

However, officially, residents were not buying specific plots but a percentage of the total estate since it couldn't be divided below 10,000 square metres, the legal minimum allowed, trying to use this as a loophole.

This case was initiated by a complaint from the Arona City Council to the Canarian Agency for the Protection of the Natural Environment, aiming to prevent not only the breach of legality but also the consequences for those who purchased ‘parts’ of the land.

In October 2022, the area was fenced and sealed, but the seal was broken, as verified in an inspection on December 2nd of last year. All these facts are outlined in the complaint by the Provincial Prosecutor's Office of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, emphasizing that "parcelling activity continued", i.e. they continued to split the land into smaller plots.

Regarding the legalization of houses, the legislation is explicit. The former director of the Agency, Ángel Rafael Fariña, warned that these lands are doomed to not be reclassified as urban by the municipality for at least another 20 years, as per the Canary Islands Land Law, which prohibits the reclassification of land that has undergone irregular urban parcelling until the specified period has elapsed.