Realities about the maritime-land zone

It is of common knowledge that the law number 6043, which is the Maritime-Land Zone Law, defines that this zone is a national patrimony. It belongs to the State, it cannot be sold and it will never expire. The protection and ruling of these areas is an obligation of the State and its municipalities.

The Maritime-Land Zone is the 200 meter wide strip along all of our coasts, whatever its nature is. These 200 meters begin on the horizontal line of the regular high tide and the pieces of land and rocks shown during the low tide. This zone contains islands, islets, risks and all the land and nature formations that rise from the sea.

The Maritime-Land Zone consist of two segments:

• Public Zone: it consists of the fifty meters from the high tide and the areas that are exposed during the low tide; for this reason private beaches in Costa Rica do not exist (all beaches in Costa Rica are public).


• Restricted zone: it is the strip of the remaining 150 meters. It is totally forbidden: to exploit the flora and fauna of this area without a previous legal authorization; mark with fences; build any facility or installation; felling of trees; extract any product or make any kind of development or activity.

Allowed occupancy of the maritime land zone:

1. Concessions: Only municipalities are allowed to grant a concession. Just for use and enjoyment of the determined areas. To obtain a concession it is necessary to follow a procedure with the municipality, before any master plan in the area is granted. Once the concession is given, it has to be registered in the Public Registry.

The main requirements are:


• The ICT (Institute Costarricense de Turismo) determines if it is suitable for a tourist area.
• The Institute Geográfico Nacional, with previous authorization from the municipality, starts the limit marking of the place. This is important so the plot plan can be registered in National Registry.
• A Master Plan of the area, which determines the possible uses and are gulations of the area.
• File the application at the municipality.
• The municipality has to inspect the land and appraise it before the Ministerio de Hacienda (the appraisal is to estimate the fees and taxes).
• Publication of the edict.
• If a project has any buildings and payment of tax over the declared amount.
• An environmental and energy certificate indicating that the area is not protected and is not a forest.


2. The Use Permit: It is a unilateral act of the municipality; it is a precarious use, where the administration allows the stay and does not grant any right. In that sense the municipality can revoke it at any time for any justified reason. These permits cannot be handed over or transferred.


3. Lease agreements: Some municipalities are granting the lease agreements, with which the municipalities pretend to rule an existent situation in reality. It needs the same as the concession, application plot plan, inspection, and appraisal, publication of the edict, draft, payment of the fees and signature of the contract between the major and the interested party. The use permits and the lease agreements, currently have some legal criteria that do not support this kind of use and enjoyment. It is important to mention some bad practice of handing over the possession rights to third parties, act that has risks for the acquirers.

Who is not available to apply for a maritime-land concession?

• Foreigners that have not lived in the country for at least five years.
• Limited Liability Corporations (Sociedades Anonimas) with open shares.
• Foreigner corporations or with domicile in another country.
• Corporations formed by foreigners.
• Corporations with a foreign capital of more than 50%.

Corporation with concession will not be able to transfer or hand over them to foreigners. Anyways the transfers done against this will not have any effect. The constitutionality of points a), c), d) and the previous before the last paragraph has been questioned by action number 06-005252-0007-CO. BJ # 115 of June the 15th of 2006. The application for any kind of use will comprise at least the following information:

• Name of the interested, generals, domicile, identification number, nationality and exact place for notices. When it is a corporation, it should indicate the name of the representative or empowered person with its generals, and attach the registration certificate and an affidavit stating the percentage of foreign share holders and the amount of foreign capital.
• Map of the land.
• Nature and limits.
• Use that it will have.

If one of the requirements is missing, the application will not be accepted. If it has any mistakes, or it has omissions, the municipality will let the interested party to correct it in the term of thirty days from the day that it has been notified. After this term, if the mistakes or omissions are not corrected, the application will be revoked and the interested party would need to apply for it again.

In Costa Rica, as mentioned before, the Maritime-Land Zone is protected by the State, through its municipalities which guarantee the free access of anyone to the beach (fifty meters), but there is a different regulation with the! Marine Law and this law includes its exploitation, in the remaining 150 meters, the Master Plans and the Concessions (in some cases a management plan if it is forest area, regulated by the Ministerio del Ambiente y Energía) for which different professionals are needed to achieve the possibility to obtain the permit.

Not all the professionals in law have within their areas of practice what is related to the Maritime-Land Zone, but the best advise, is to seek professional advice with successful experience in this matter to avoid unnecessary delays.