Tirajana: 30 days for allegations regarding the residential tourist use ordinance

The City Council of San Bartolomé de Tirajana has initially approved the ordinance intended to clarify which houses and apartments may maintain residential use in the coastal tourist zone, the area comprising Maspalomas, Playa del Inglés, and San Agustín. The agreement was adopted by the Corporation’s Plenary in an ordinary session on October 29, 2026, and is published in the Official Gazette of the Province of Las Palmas number 136, of November 13, 2026, section III (Local Administration), under announcement 3.122 and registration 2.303.210. The file is now subject to public information and a hearing for interested parties for 30 days starting from the day following publication.

The project is processed under file number 17191/2026 of Planning and is titled Municipal Ordinance on the Legal Regime of Residential Use in the Coastal Tourist Zone of San Bartolomé de Tirajana. The opening of the procedure is supported by articles 49 and 70.2 of the Law Regulating the Bases of Local Regime and article 133.2 of Law 39/2015 on the Common Administrative Procedure of Public Administrations. Allegations and suggestions must be addressed to the Department of Urban Planning and submitted to the General Registry of the City Council, in person, electronically, or by any means admitted by article 16 of Law 39/2015. The complete file can be consulted on the municipal website www.maspalomas.com, in the Notice Board-Public Exhibition section; if no claim is filed within the deadline, the provisional agreement will be understood as definitively adopted.

Ten articles to organize legal situations

The articulated text consists of a preamble, ten articles, two final provisions, and an application annex. Article 1 establishes as its objective to clarify the legal regime of residential use by identifying existing situations; article 2 limits the effects to the coastal tourist zone of the municipality where the described problem is recognized.

Article 3 lists the five regulated scenarios:

• Uses authorized and/or existing before the General Urban Development Plan of 1996.
• Uses authorized and/or existing after that general plan.
• Uses prior to the legal imposition of the duty to adhere to tourist use in 2013.
• Uses subsequent to that legal imposition.
• Uses subsequent to the approval of the specialization of uses, with the reference date of January 1, 2017.

From there, articles 4 to 9 outline the regime for each case: legal status of conformity, legal status of consolidation, or outside of planning with consolidated uses, pursuant to articles 159, 361.1.d) and 361.6 of Law 4/2017, of July 13, on Land and Protected Natural Spaces of the Canary Islands. Uses prior to the entry into force of Law 2/2013, of May 29, on Tourism Renewal and Modernization maintain their previous legal status.

Municipal certificate within a period of one month

Article 10 creates a municipal certification of residential use in the coastal tourist zone. It will be issued at the request of the interested party to certify the status and the applicable regime, and the City Council may identify the properties or private units with pre-existing residential use based on the original planning, property titles, horizontal division, registry description, cadastral information, licenses, census registrations, or utility supplies, among other means. The certification, which is merely informative and declaratory, will be issued within one month and does not alter the urban planning regime of the property.

The first final provision refers the specialization of uses to the Modernization, Improvement and Competitiveness Increase Plan of Maspalomas-Costa Canaria, currently under processing, or to the general planning in its absence, pursuant to the plenary agreement of December 19, 2024. The second final provision establishes that the ordinance will enter into force after its full publication in the bulletin and upon expiration of the period set forth in article 65.2 of Law 7/1985, remaining in effect until its incorporation into the municipal planning.

17,536 residents and regional sanctions

The preamble links the regulation to the plenary agreement of June 27, 2024, which declared the extraordinary and urgent public necessity and social interest of the ordinance and estimated the number of people affected by residential use in the tourist zone at 17,536 registered residents. The breakdown by area is as follows:

• Playa del Inglés: 6,960
• Sonnenland: 3,548
• Campo Internacional: 3,065
• San Agustín: 2,178
• Meloneras: 890
• Playa del Águila: 627
• Bahía Feliz: 268

The document justifies municipal intervention due to the complexity of the regulatory framework and the conflict generated by the sanctioning proceedings that the Tourism Department of the Government of the Canary Islands initiated in 2023 against owners of properties with residential use in the coastal tourist zone, and cites Decree-Law 2/2025, of March 17, on urgent measures regarding the duty to adhere to tourist use. It further recalls that studies by the public company Gesplan in 2015 identified twelve consolidated tourist areas, of which only three had exclusively tourist use. The regulation replaces the previous Provisional Ordinance, the processing of which was abandoned in favor of a new proceeding.

The ordinance does not resolve the specialization of uses, a task that the text itself considers to exceed the function of a municipal ordinance, but it does offer owners a frame of reference against the sanctions and the uncertainty that the municipality has dragged along for years. The certification of Article 10 and the one-month deadline for its issuance become the most immediate practical tool for thousands of owners of apartments and homes in the tourist coast. The announcement bears the signature of the Councilor for the Government Area of Urbanism, Heritage, Patrimonial Liability, and Housing, Alejandro I. Marichal Ramos.

Source: Official Gazette of the Province of Las Palmas, number 136, of November 13, 2026, section III (Local Administration), pp. 19579-19607 (official reference: announcement 3.122, registry 2.303.210, file 17191/2026).