The VIP colony of Camorritos, an enclave in the Sierra de Madrid created in the 1920s, has its days numbered. Or not. In September, the Community of Madrid approved the expiration of the concession that allowed it to occupy public domain since 1920, which represents a de facto expropriation. This is an issue that stirs powerful families because they have homes or land there with surnames such as Botín, Koplowitz, Fraga-Iribarne, Torres-Quevedo and also the family of the Minister of Health, Mónica García, Ayuso’s opponent. But after publishing the expiration of the concession, the Ministry of the Environment itself, upon beginning to receive resources, paralyzed the execution. He considers that, if it continues, “it could effectively generate damage that is difficult or impossible to repair.” Thus, the colony still has many extra lives in court.
In 1920 and 1921, after the 1918 flu and with the population in psychosis due to tuberculosis, the crown allowed the Sociedad Anónima del Ferrocarril Eléctrico de Guadarrama (SAFEG) to occupy three public mountains to build the colonies of Camorritos and El Puerto de Navacerrada. There, what were then called “high-rise sanatoriums” – actually chalets – were built on public land.
A century after those first permits, the Community of Madrid and the Cercedilla City Council came to the conclusion that the concession to occupy public forests had expired. A complex process then began to rescue the land and demolish the homes – or manage them publicly. The case, already intricate in itself, acquired a political overtone because Mónica García, today Minister of Health and former leader of the opposition against Isabel Díaz Ayuso in the Madrid Assembly, inherited with her brothers half of a house in Camorritos.
In reality, there was a legal dispute over whether this was a concession that expired after 100 years or, as the neighbors maintain, it became private land years ago. To this end, they provide, among other documentation, an opinion by Professor Eduardo García de Enterría who in 1974 concluded that despite the royal orders of the 1920s giving him authorization to occupy public land, “they materially carried out an alienation.” so they would already be private.
After several files that expired due to passing the deadline to resolve them and a legal change to leave more flexibility to the Department of the Environment, on September 30, the Community sent to the Official Gazette “the extinction due to expiration due to expiration of the 99-year term, complied with on April 15, 2019, of the authorization granted to the Sociedad Anónima de Ferrocarriles Eléctricos del Guadarrama (SAFEG).”
The neighbors then began to appeal to the council itself. In one of the first files, to which this newspaper has had access, they requested the suspension of the expropriation. They alleged that “execution could cause damages that were impossible or difficult to repair.” And they added that although the Community order does not speak of demolition or immediate eviction, “it is undeniable that it establishes the obligation of the interested parties to proceed to sign the minutes of delivery of the assets within a period of three months,” which would open the door to deterioration or vandalism that is difficult to repair if they end up winning.
Immediately, the council agreed with the neighbors. “It is considered that the damages alleged, for the sole purpose of resolving the suspension request, have been sufficiently motivated.” And he pointed out a detail that they consider relevant, “that the adoption of the requested precautionary measure would not harm the public interest or the fundamental rights of third parties.”
The case now has an administrative path left, until the Ministry resolves the appeals, the usual thing is that it maintains its decision, and then the judicial route is opened… years in the courts until reaching the Supreme Court. The day will come when the Camorritos colony may end up falling under the pickaxe. But it won’t be tomorrow.
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