Murcia proposes Coastal Law reform to protect cultural heritage sites from state land restrictions
The ruling PP party in the Region wants culturally significant properties to be excluded from the maritime-terrestrial public domain
Murcia’s ruling Partido Popular (PP) has submitted a proposal to Spain’s Congress of Deputies seeking to amend the eleventh additional provision of the Coastal Law to better protect cultural heritage sites located along the coastline. The bill calls for real estate registered as Assets of Cultural Interest (BIC) to be excluded from the maritime-terrestrial public domain through a formal boundary revision.
Specifically, the PP wants this change to apply to BICs of local interest, Properties of Local Relevance or other similar designations created by Spain’s autonomous communities. These are often traditional properties that reflect a municipality’s cultural identity and may lie within areas designated as public coastal land, whether inside or outside urban centres.
The proposal outlines that once these properties have been officially recognised and included in the Cultural Heritage Catalogue of their respective autonomous community, and the relevant procedure has been followed, they should be managed under the regime that governs land in the protection easement zone. This would be subject to prior notification to the Ministry responsible for coastal matters.
In addition, the PP proposes that all BICs located in the maritime-terrestrial public domain be subject to a concession regime, with the relevant administrative concession to be granted within one year of the property’s declaration as culturally significant. The proposal also states that the regulations concerning cultural assets should take precedence over the general provisions of the Coastal Law, except where the third transitory provision applies.
The party has criticised what it sees as a long-standing failure to implement adequate protection measures for the coastline, leading to many long-established urban properties being included in the maritime-terrestrial public domain. According to the PP, this has affected single-family homes and small businesses that had existed for decades before coastal boundaries were formally established.
The initiative also points to specific cases in the Region of Murcia, citing Puntas de Calnegre (Lorca), Puerto de Mazarrón, Cabo de Palos and Los Nietos (Cartagena) as examples of traditional urban centres with strong ethnological value that have been caught up in this issue.
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