Summer 2025 Newsletter
PDU Update
Following meetings with Governor Castro, Municipal President Milena Quiroga, the Pacto de Todos Santos, and various agencies, it was agreed to hold regular sessions to create a community-driven development plan. The Pacto advocates restarting the process and issuing no permits under the La Paz PDU. At the July 16 th meeting, they decided to address topics in a series of focused meetings with working groups, starting with Todos Santos' vision, then moving to water, resolving each topic before proceeding to the next.
The people of Todos Santos aim for a PDU that aligns with our vision, safeguards the environment, limits growth to current resource capacities, and maintains existing zoning rules. Meetings between the Pacto and representatives of the municipality and other government agencies are being held every Wednesday beginning at 5:30 at the Cultural Center. Everyone is invited to attend.
Palmoral Project Temporarily Halted
Due to community protest and lack of environmental approvals and building permits, PROFEPA has temporarily stopped Neto Coppel’s 16-unit condo project, which violates both our local and new La Paz PDUs and is in a flood-prone protected zone. We are working to help ensure the closure becomes permanent.
Thank you to everyone who contributed to stopping the project.
Proteger Todos Santos Environmental Conference
On July 4th and 5th, Proteger Todos Santos hosted a very successful 2-day seminar addressing local environmental issues. John Moreno discussed the ongoing PDU battle, Teresa Eaga presented a plan for a hiking trail and public park in La Reforma arroyo, and Dr. Jobst Wurl from the Autonomous University of La Paz spoke about water resources along with many other environmental experts. There is a real movement building between the people on the East Cape and Todos Santos to bring a halt to unsustainable development. Thanks to Executive Director Diego Ramirez and Elena Vasquez for organizing this event that brought together Baja Sur environmental experts.
Dune Destruction in San Sebastian
Following the closure of the Eddie Ogden project on Vista Ballina, we had hoped no further building on the dunes would occur. However, John Ohmer who lives in the white house on the dunes below Flora del Mar in San Sebastian had different ideas and started building 4 houses, two on either side of his house and rent all 5 out as vacation rentals.
On June 26, his contractor removed protective dune grass despite our warning to them about our PDU prohibiting construction on primary or secondary dunes. Efforts to enlist municipal help at a July 1 meeting failed. When we later blocked truck access to the site the municipal police intervened by making us move our vehicles instead of stopping the construction.
The Municipality, SEMARNAT and PROFEPA have all visited the site but did not order its closure, so actions continued. The construction is still ongoing as of July 28. Because the project violates numerous regulations, lawsuits are being filed now. It is very disappointing that the municipality issued permits, and the environmental authorities have not shut the project down.
What Three New PDU’s Will Do:
New PDUs are proposed not only for Todos Santos, but also for the La Ventana and Los Barriles regions. The potential effects of these developments include:
An estimated population increase of approximately 260,000 across all three regions will close to double the municipal population. For context, the city of La Paz currently has around 300,000 residents. The population growth in the PDU suggests an increase of about 125,000 people in Todos Santos, 90,000 in Los Barriles, and 45,000 in the La Ventana region in the years ahead.
Each area consists of small rural communities with aquifers that are already heavily utilized and over-extracted. In La Ventana, there is no local aquifer.
Building the necessary desalination plants and water distribution infrastructure for the additional population would require a municipal investment of about $145 million USD.
Expanding power capacity in La Paz to meet the increased electrical demand would cost $600 million USD and an investment of $2 billion USD for the distribution system.
These costs do not account for investments in sewage systems, waste management, schools, roads, healthcare facilities, government buildings, or public spaces.
Currently, all 3 plans have been voided by a federal judge for lack of community involvement. The other significant problem with the plans is the lack of required risk assessments to ensure the plans provide for sustainable development as required by the General Law of Human Settlements and Environmental Protection, the federal law governing the creation of PDU’s.
Todos Santos Water Situation
Baja Sur continues to experience substantial effects resulting from climate change. As indicated by the charts below, drought conditions have persisted for the past decade, beginning in 2015 and the trend is for average summer temperatures to continue to climb as a result of climate change leading to increased evaporation rates. These factors, combined with rapid population growth, present ongoing challenges to ensure regional water security.
It is critically important for all of us to work together to conserve water. In addition to fixing leaks, these measures have the greatest impact:
Installing drip irrigation and watering plants no more frequent than weekly and less for desert plants.
Planting native plants and palms.
Covering pools to reduce evaporation by 90%.
Discussing ways to minimize water use with your gardener.
Thank you for your ongoing support!
The Team at Protect Todos Santos
