- The Tres Santos hotel project in Baja California Sur will have to conduct new environmental impact studies in order to obtain permits that it failed to comply with when breaking ground nearly a decade ago.
- Over the last decade, residents said the environmental impact became worse than what had originally been described to them. Some wetlands were filled in and rivers and streams were being diverted.
- Earlier this year, a court found that the original environmental impact study didn’t justify the development that was carried out. It should have been rejected and done again before construction even started.
MEXICO CITY — A hotel project in northern Mexico has stalled following a series of legal complaints that it failed to meet environmental standards, which would have protected coastal ecosystems and the local fishing economy.
The Tres Santos hotel project in Baja California Sur will have to conduct new environmental impact studies in order to obtain permits that it failed to comply with when breaking ground nearly a decade ago, resulting in the destruction of wetlands and a clash with local fishermen worried about their livelihoods.
“We want our rights and our interests to be protected and to be respected,” said John Moreno, an attorney who filed multiple lawsuits against the project. “We want the law to be strictly enforced and the environment to be respected, and that requires them to respect the wetlands, that requires them to respect the dunes.”
Developers planned the hotel for the town of Todos Santos, where many residents rely on fishing and tourism for their livelihoods.
In 2014, Black Creek Group, a Colorado-based real estate company, began consulting with residents about the multi-million-dollar development project, including three hotels, commercial venues, a 400,000-liter water tank and over 4,000 residential homes — capable of housing nearly the entire population of Todos Santos at the time.
At first, talks between the two sides were going well, Moreno said. But as development progressed, residents saw that the environmental impact would be worse than what had originally been described to them. Some wetlands were filled in and rivers and streams were being diverted.
Fishermen were pushed out of the area that they traditionally used for fishing. They started to worry that that their fishing practices, which stretch back around a century, would be permanently compromised by the construction.
Ares Wealth Management, which purchased Black Creek Group in 2021, didn’t respond to a request for comment for this story.
Between 2015 and 2016, residents staged a sit-in protest at the access point to the construction site of one of the hotels, temporarily halting work on the project. In 2017, due to his involvement in a case against the project, Moreno spent 100 days in jail.
Since 2015, Moreno and other residents have been filing legal complaints at every level of government in hopes of halting the project, or at least getting answers about what was to come. In many cases, they found that the company wasn’t complying with the parameters of the building permits, including encroaching on land not included in the building plans.
Earlier this year, a court found that the original environmental impact study didn’t justify the development that was carried out. It should have been rejected and done again before construction even started.
The decision is mostly a symbolic win for Moreno and other people fighting the hotel, as the project was sold to a Mexican investment fund, who has a different vision for the area that will require a new environmental impact study.
“I hope that this was a learning process that not only the community learned from, but that also the authorities learned from, and also the developer learned from,” Moreno said. “Because if they did, they would know that they have a historic opportunity to uplift, to create and to make a better reality and to make a difference for an entire community.
Banner image: Residents protest the Tres Santos project. Photo courtesy of BajasurTv.
See related from this reporter:
Mexico loses phosphate mining lawsuit in controversial arbitration process
Previous coverage:
Lawyer opposing U.S. resort developer in Baja Mexico jailed 62 days
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