Tres Santos is a multimillion-dollar, 1,000-acre community
planned for the historical Todos Santos fishing village north of Cabo San Lucas.
The project is set to start construction this summer with completion of the
first phase scheduled for fall 2016.
The first phase will include 96 residential units throughout
Tres Santos (1,635 homes will eventually be built), and one boutique hotel
planned for the Beach Village section of the project.
The Tres Santos community “will embrace local art, culture,
agriculture and natural beauty in a meaningful way,” according to developer
Jimmy Mulvihill, chairman of Mexico-based MIRA Cos. and founding partner of
Denver-based Black Creek Capital.
The pedestrian-friendly community will offer a town farm
centered on organic gardening, a beach area, a hillside residential development
with several boutique hotels, residential units, farm-to-table restaurants,
arts and crafts galleries, a specialty market and an international research and
education center for Colorado State University.
Mulvihill envisions Tres Santos as “the ultimate escape for
those seeking a wellness getaway and a holistic lifestyle. Today’s travelers
and home buyers are increasingly looking to visit and live in communities that
offer a sense of place, that are inclusive and walkable and promote a healthy
and low-stress lifestyle,” he said.
However not everyone is thrilled at the prospect of another
large scale development in the Baja.
In an email addressed to CSU administration, Susana Mahieux,
a co-founder of an environmental board and a Todos Santos local, wrote on
behalf of residents and raised many concerns about the environmental and
economic impacts of the housing development along with CSU’s involvement with
the project.
“It is hard to understand how, through your participation,
you can support this project, especially given that your course outline
includes water conservation, sustainable development and general ecological balance.
Tres Santos will negate every principle you propose to teach,” Mahieux wrote.
Leticia Maldonado, a CSU graduate and president of the CSU
Latin American Students and Scholars Organization, was sent by CSU to Todos
Santos to gather community input earlier this year.
Maldonado said she was surprised by the negative feedback
she received from the community and the involvement of MIRA. Maldonado left a
meeting with the developers feeling disheartened by their plans.
“I was very disappointed by the type of language that was
used,” Maldonado said. “It was clear that there was no cultural competence. I
was the only woman of color in a room full of white people talking about the
needs of this town and it was really concerning because it didn’t really seem
like the people understood what the concerns of the town actually were.”
Along with meeting the housing developers, Maldonado also
met with local researchers and professors from the Autonomous University of
Baja California Sur, who were very critical of CSU and the school’s involvement
with the potentially damaging housing project.
“There was clear opposition to the project. They said as an
institution of higher education, ‘You should know better.’ These companies come
and they exploit and extract resources from the town, especially water,” Maldonado
said. “They said, ‘You are educators, too, why aren’t you taking this
seriously?”
Even without the housing project, Todos Santos already faces
severe water problems, according to John McNerney, a resident of Todos Santos
and member of the local group that sent the email to CSU administration.
“The idea that they are going to teach us about
sustainability is kind of a joke,” McNerney said.
Local delegate Arturo Martinez Villalobos has now added his
thoughts to the debate.
The official confirmed that he held meetings "with
people of Tres Santos", and assured
that he had made them see the sense of the fears local people have of it
becoming another resort Los Cabos style.
"I told them the development was welcome, but it had to
be sustainable development, development that harmonized with the people […] not
another Cabo San Lucas [...] They [MIRA Companies] have some permissions [Profepa],
but we will be vigilant that things are done right."
Some locals have already made complaints of damage to
mangroves in the Punta Lobos area.