Lorraine Williamson
The debate around Maro is often framed as a clash between growth and conservation. But this week, Nerja’s town hall sent a simpler message: the paperwork matters.
On 13 February 2026, Nerja’s municipal council unanimously refused to even begin processing the long-running proposal for a golf course in the Vega de Maro, alongside housing and hotels. Crucially, councillors also rejected the PGOU modification that the scheme would need to move forward. In practical terms, that stops the project in its tracks — at least in its current form.
What was proposed — and who is behind it
The promoter named by the council is Sociedad Azucarera Larios Inmobiliaria SL, which submitted the request to start the formal procedure for a golf course development in Maro’s agricultural plain. The plan included not only the course itself, but the urban planning change required to allow tourist and residential construction linked to it.
The wider “Maro Golf” debate has been active for years, with proposals previously reported to include a large resort-style footprint and significant homebuilding. The controversy has never been only about sport — it has always been about what kind of future is being written onto a rare stretch of coastal farmland.
Why the council said no: LISTA, not LOUA
Nerja’s official explanation centres on Andalucia’s planning framework. The council says the developer tried to rely on LOUA, the old Andalucian urban planning law, but legal advice from the regional administration concluded the project must be processed under LISTA — the newer law that replaced the previous regime.
That distinction is not technical trivia. If a project is channelled through the wrong legal route, it becomes vulnerable to challenge and delay — and councils risk years of litigation, stop-start planning, and uncertainty for residents.
According to Nerja’s statement, municipal technical reports had already warned about this issue, and the council framed the unanimous vote as a matter of legal certainty and correct territorial planning under the current rules.
A Costa del Sol pressure point: land, water, tourism, housing
It’s impossible to detach this story from wider pressures across Málaga province. The Costa del Sol is grappling with a familiar cocktail: housing demand, infrastructure strain, water stress, and the constant search for investment that can be sold as “quality tourism”.
Golf developments, in particular, sit right in that tension. Supporters tend to sell them as year-round tourism anchors. Critics see them as land-hungry, water-intensive symbols of an old-growth model — especially when attached to hundreds of new homes.
Maro’s case is even more sensitive because the area has long been described as a landscape where agriculture, heritage and environmental protection collide with powerful development interests.
Does this kill the plan for good?
No. It closes the current door, but it does not erase the demand or the landowner’s options.
What the council is saying is that any future attempt would need to start again, and it would need to be designed and submitted under the LISTA framework from the outset. In other words: if the project returns, it would return on different legal terms — and possibly with a different scale, phasing, or justification.
For residents, the immediate consequence is clarity: the council has made a unanimous decision, and there is no active municipal procedure advancing the scheme right now.
What happens next in Maro
The most likely next phase is a quieter one: legal and technical work, not bulldozers. If the promoter wants to try again, the argument will move from slogans to statutes — and from broad claims about jobs or landscape to detailed compliance with the rules that now govern rural land and municipal planning in Andalucia.
If you live in Nerja or Maro, expect the debate to reappear whenever a revised proposal emerges — but this vote signals that, for now, the council is drawing a hard line around process, not just politics.