Bulevar - Tomatal
WHEN A COUPLE FROM MEXICO CITY BOUGHT BEACH-side property in Tomatal, Colotepec, less than half an hour from Puerto Escondido, in 2008, the plan was to build a house, bungalows, and a pool. The goal was to create a quieter place than Costa Cumaná for luxury rentals and their vacation home.
By 2016, with the construction of a pool, their project was completed. Unfortunately, they are now fighting the local government of Tomatal over possession of the land where the beachside pool was built.
In February, members of the community and of Bienes Comunales of Colotepec broke through the barrier and attacked the pool with a sledge hammer. The property was not occupied at the time.
All the land in Santa María Colotepec is communal, not private. That means land is not bought and sold, but assigned by actas de posesión by Bienes Comunales. In the early 2000’s, the Assembly of the Bienes Comunales voted to keep possession of all its beachfront land within 30 meters of the Federal Zone. This land has been set aside for the construction of a boulevard.
Bienes Comunales only issues land permits; it doesn’t build roads. That is the job of the Municipio that administers the land through the local Delegations. The assemblies of the residents of a delegation meet several times a year to vote on civic improvements like electric lines, schools, public health clinics and roads. Some of the votes have to do with asking for help from the municipality.
The municipality receives federal and state funding as well as payments for business licenses, the delegations receive resources from the municipality. You do not pay a property tax on communal land, since you do not actually own it, but you are required to contribute your labor to projects voted on by the assembly. This community service is called tequio. The tequio may be building or maintaining a road.
In 2021, the assembly of Tomatal voted to build the beachfront road on the land that had been set aside by Bienes Comunales for that purpose. Construction through the tequio only got as far as the property where the pool is located.
The question is whether or not the pool is 30 meters from the public beach. The acta de posesión says that the southern limit of the property is the boulevard, but that if the road does not get built, the property will extend to the Federal Zone. A further complication is that the Zona Federal is calculated every 10 years to adjust for changes in the coastline.
BIENES COMUNALES OF San Pedro Mixtepec also has set aside land for a road that will give public access to its beaches. This strip, which it calls the Malecón, is 20 meters wide and 7.5 km’s. long. It borders the Federal Zone and runs through Chila from Vivo Resorts to playa Delfines and includes Agua Dulce.
You can’t get an acta for this beachfront property, but that has not stopped people, like the owners of Origen Beach Club, from building on it. They claim the land is private. Having an escritura (clear title) on a property is not proof of ownership of communal land. The land in Chila, including Palmarito, was not included in the federal expropriation of 1970. There is even a sign at the entrances to Agua Dulce and Palmarito warning you that the land is communal.
