The New La Paz PDU for Todos Santos
The New La Paz PDU for Todos Santos
Municipal President Milena Romero and IMPLAN Director Roberto Soto have successfully replaced the Todos Santos PDU our community created over a decade ago with one of their own falsely claiming it was just an “update” to our existing plan and their plan was sustainable.
Passed in February 2025 over the objections of residents and an injunction against its enactment by a federal court, it allows unchecked development that threatens our water supply, electrical power needs, fragile ecosystems, and the beauty and serenity of our pueblo magical.
Massive Expansion, Minimal Oversight
The new PDU opens the door to approximately 40,000 new lots and over 112,000 residents—a fivefold population increase. The previous 2012 plan, created by our community over a 5-year period, limited growth to around 25,000 residents to protect the limited water supply, electrical grid, and wastewater systems from exceeding their capacity and all three are currently exceeded with the existing full-time population of about 15,000.
Water and Infrastructure at the Breaking Point
Todos Santos already faces a severe water deficit. According to CONAGUA (2023), 80% more water is pumped from our aquifer each year than nature replenishes. The new PDU ignores this crisis and violates federal requirements for risk assessments as part of the PDU creation process. Saltwater intrusion is already damaging the aquifer, and invasive forests of Arundo are choking the Todos Santos spring and lagoon while threatening the oasis and La Poza lagoon.
Illegal Development and ‘Trucked Water’
Developers often sell lots without basic infrastructure, forcing owners to truck in water at about 1,500 pesos (≈$100 USD) per 10,000 liters. This ‘temporary’ fix is illegal under the Baja California Sur State Water Law, which requires developers to provide utilities before selling or building. Protect Todos Santos is planning on challenging any permit issued to build on lots without the required basic services.
Legal and Community Action
Protect Todos Santos has filed lawsuits to nullify the La Paz PDU, as federal courts have done for other plans that did not comply with the law. In addition, we are attempting to block large-scale projects—hotels, condos, and subdivisions—that cannot prove they have legal access to water, power, and sewage systems. Our goal is to ensure that growth only happens within the limits of the law, our available water and power resources and does not damage the environment such as the dunes, lagoons, oasis and arroyos.
Protecting Our Future
The 2025 PDU’s vision of 150,000 people would destroy Todos Santos’ identity and environment. It is a corrupt municipal government that has created a completely illegal document that we now live under. We will continue our efforts to void this plan and create new plan that is compliant with federal laws requiring sustainable development. Until that happens, we will continue to defend our pueblo.
No risk Assessments: Population growth was not based on current and accurate federally mandated assessments of water, electrical infrastructure, sewage, waste disposal and other services the new population will require.
No infrastructure investment: There is no tangible commitment to improving existing infrastructure to support their aggressive population growth and need for additional public safety, schools, health care facilities, paved roads, parks and public spaces.
Housing Type: La Paz PDU allows condos and Airbnb type development throughout the region, unlike the Todos Santos PDU, which restricted multi-family housing to urban areas.
Construction Coverage and Building Heights: The new plan significantly increases the allowable construction coverage, reducing natural areas between residences and allows additional levels of construction plus rooftop shade structures.
Smaller Lots and Higher Density: The plan significantly reduces the minimum lot sizes and increases the number of lots from 7,000 under the current PDU to 47,000 under the proposed PDU.
Population & Density Impacts of the PDU
To get a feel for what the new PDU will do, imagine a Todos Santos with the same population as San Jose del Cabo.
What is even worst is the PDU will allow multi-family housing throughout the region. Currently, most of the region is for single family homes.
Download the Proposed Zoning Map.
Here is what the proposed PDU does in each zone:
New H6 Zone (Currently the RT zone along the coastline): Located in the areas west of Las Playitas Road in Las Tunas, La Cachora, and San Sebastian and west of highway 29 going to Cabo. The minimum lot size of 2,000 m2 has been reduced to 1,500 m2 and the COS or area of construction was increased from 25% to 30% of the lot. Most importantly, with permission from La Paz multifamily housing and vacation rentals can be built on any lot so the coastal region could eventually look and feel like Cerritos Beach.
New H1 zone: Located north of Cerritos and west of Todos Santos Central the minimum lot size has been reduced to 600 m2 and on 2,000 m2 lots 3 levels are allowed. Multi-family housing is allowed with approval from La Paz.
New H2 zone: This is a very large zone located on the east side of Las Playitas in Las Tunas area, east of freeway in Pescadero and north of the Todos Santos Central District. The minimum lot size has dropped to from 600 m2 to 400 m2 and 3 levels and multifamily residences are allowed on 1,000 m2 lots without any special approval.
New CU-MD zone: Located in the historic district of Todos Santos, the number of levels has increased from 2 levels to 3 levels and the height limit is increased from 7.5 meters or 24.6 feet to 12 meters or 39 feet. Shade structures are also allowed on the roof. This will forever change the historic character of the town.
New H4 zone: Located north of Pescadero on the east of the highway minimum lot sizes of 200 m2 are allowed and on 400 m2 lots, 4 levels with a maximum height of 16 meters or 52 feet are allowed. Multi-family housing is allowed without any special approval.
New T-MD hotel district: Located along the coast near El Faro beach mid-rise hotels of 4 levels with heights of 16 meters or 52 feet are allowed. Under the Todos Santos PDU only eco resorts with not more than 10 rooms per hectare and 2 levels were allowed.
New EC and BD-PECO zones: The allowable number of rooms increased from 10 per hectare to 12 per hectare.
Get Involved
Contact Us
We need your help to protect Todos Santos.
If you observe any violations of the PDU and environmental regulations included on this website, please contact us, and we will investigate your concerns and take appropriate action.
Join Us
We are a group of citizens doing our best to protect our beautiful pueblo. We would love to have your help as we work to fight against illegal development and create more regulation and oversight into our limited natural resources.
Support Us
Your donation will help us stop illegal development, protect our current zoning rules, and fund our efforts to effectively manage our scarce water resources.