Mexico Rejects Environmental Permit for Colonial-Style Hotel in Bacalar

Cancún, Quintana Roo — Mexico’s environment ministry has rejected the environmental impact assessment for a proposed colonial-style hotel on the shores of Bacalar Lagoon, halting the development in the southern Caribbean destination.

The Secretariat of Environment and Natural Resources (Semarnat) denied the permit for the Hacienda San Agustín hotel, planned for lots 9 and 11 in Region 10 along Bulevar Costero in Bacalar. The project called for a two-level building with direct views of the lagoon.

According to the rejected application, the developer intended to operate the hotel for approximately 50 years, with a construction and demolition phase of existing structures estimated at 23 months. The promoter argued that the site sits in Environmental Management Unit A-1, which the region’s ecological planning program classifies as compatible with intensive hotel tourism. The application also stated that the land lies entirely outside federal and state natural protected areas and proposed mitigation measures including septic tanks connected to the public sewage network, use of the municipal potable water supply, and municipal waste collection.

Despite those commitments, Semarnat refused to authorize the project, effectively stopping hotel expansion along Bacalar’s urban coastal strip.

Bacalar has been experiencing one of its most critical hotel occupancy periods of the year, with many properties operating below 30 percent, according to Enrique Bautista, president of the Bacalar Hotel and Restaurant Association, as Reportur previously reported.