Canaries assumes the environmental assessment of all urban planning in Moya

The Government of the Canary Islands has accepted the delegation from the Moya City Council for the Autonomous Environmental Evaluation Commission to assume the competence for strategic, ordinary, and simplified environmental evaluation of municipal urban planning instruments and their modifications. This is done through Decree 152/2026, of October 19, published in the Official Gazette of the Province of Las Palmas, number 127, on Friday, October 23, 2026, with registration reference 378014 and distributed between pages 18186 and 18189.

The origin: a 2023 plenary agreement and the lack of a dedicated body

The decree is based on the certification of the agreement of the Plenary of the Moya City Council of July 28, 2023, sent to the Ministry of Territorial Policy, Territorial Cohesion and Waters on July 13, 2026. The file is supported by an explicit finding: the lack of a dedicated municipal environmental body within the municipality.

The legal basis is Article 86 of Law 4/2017, of July 13, on Land and Protected Natural Areas of the Canary Islands (LSENPC), which subjects the approval, substantial modification, and adaptation of territorial, environmental, and urban planning instruments to the environmental evaluation procedure for plans and programs. Section 6.c) allows city councils to delegate this competence to the autonomous environmental body, with a distribution of acts: the delegation agreement is adopted by the Plenary of the local entity and the acceptance agreement by the Government of the Canary Islands.

The Autonomous Environmental Evaluation Commission acts as the autonomous environmental body in accordance with Articles 1.2.a) and 11 of the Regulation approved by Decree 13/2019, of February 25. The Executive justifies the acceptance based on the principles of efficiency, collaboration, and inter-administrative cooperation of Articles 3.1.h) and 140.1 of Law 40/2015, of October 1.

What remains within and what remains outside the delegation

The RESOLVE section of the decree contains two parts: the acceptance of the delegation and the conditions to which it is subject. The scope has an express limit that should be specified:

• The delegation covers the strategic, ordinary, and simplified environmental evaluation of municipal urban planning instruments and their modifications.
• It does not include the environmental evaluation of the structural urban planning of the General Planning Plan of Moya nor that of its substantial modification, because that competence is already autonomous under the last paragraph of Article 86.6.c) of the LSENPC.

The conditions for exercise are divided into six points. The Moya City Council must provide the necessary and mandatory documentation in accordance with Law 21/2013, of December 9, the LSENPC, the Canary Islands Planning Regulations (Decree 181/2018, of December 26) and Decree 13/2019. All documentation shall be signed by its authors with a completion date, and the environmental documentation must be prepared by persons with sufficient technical capacity and the quality required by Article 16 of Law 21/2013.

Revocation, extinction, and continuity of the procedure

The delegation may be revoked at any time by the Moya City Council, without prejudice to the occasional assumption of competence by the Corporation, and also by the Government of the Canary Islands. The delegation shall be automatically extinguished when the municipality notifies the effective constitution of its municipal environmental body and it assumes its functions, without the need for an express act of revocation.

The decree also regulates the transition to avoid gaps:

• Actions, reports, agreements, and procedures already carried out fully retain their legal efficacy.
• Ongoing procedures continue without retroaction of actions and are assumed by the new body in the state in which they are found.
• The City Council shall guarantee the complete delivery of the file and its traceability to the outgoing body.
• There may be no simultaneous double competence or functional overlap in any phase of the file.

All resolutions of the Autonomous Environmental Evaluation Commission must indicate that they are issued by delegation of the Moya City Council, citing the municipal agreement and the decree, and shall be considered issued by the delegating Administration.

Processing and signature

The file incorporates the legal report of the Support Service for the Collegiate Environmental Evaluation Body and Single Report, dated September 24, 2026, and the proposal of the Vice-Minister of Territorial Planning and Demographic Challenge, dated October 8, 2026. The decree is approved upon the proposal of the Minister of Territorial Policy, Territorial Cohesion, and Waters, in accordance with Article 58.1.a) of Law 4/2023, of March 23, and following the deliberation of the Government of the Canary Islands in its meeting on October 19, 2026. It is signed by the president, Fernando Clavijo Batlle, and the minister Manuel Miranda Medina, and its publication is ordered in the Official Gazette of the Canary Islands and in the Official Gazette of the Province of Las Palmas.

The practical effect is that any developer or private individual promoting a modification to the municipal planning of Moya —from a partial plan to a detailed study or a minor revision— will henceforth deal with the Autonomous Environmental Evaluation Commission and not with a non-existent municipal office, which unifies the technical criteria and avoids the paralysis caused by the lack of its own environmental body in smaller municipalities.

Source: Official Gazette of the Province of Las Palmas, number 127, Friday, October 23, 2026, section II (Administration of the Autonomous Community), pages 18186-18189 (official reference: 378014, Decree 152/2026).