Too much concrete in the Cycladic Islands
The worst-case scenario for some of the Cycladic Islands – a landscape spoiled by too much construction – is apparently not far off. Myconos, Santorini and smaller islands, such as Ano Koufonissi, have almost totally been built up. Small tourist settlements with very small plots of land between them have spilled over hillsides, plains and coastlines. All efforts to restrict the urbanization of the islands have failed miserably due to loopholes in legislation and because no one has strictly enforced the law. Experts are saying that within the next decade the Cyclades’ natural beauty will be completely spoiled and no longer the tourist attraction it was in the past. Some say the time has come for a universal ban on building outside the town-planning zones on these islands so as to save what is still left. Tourist development began on a few of the islands during the 1960s, but systematic construction did not begin until the 1980s. A clearer picture emerged during a building census in 1990 and another in 2000 that showed the largest increase in the total number of structures was on the smaller islands (an addition of 67 percent on Sikinos, 63 percent on Donousa and 57 percent on Koufonissia). However on larger islands, such as Naxos, about 4,000 buildings had been built; even on smaller islands, such as Myconos, Santorini and Paros, up to 2,000 new buildings were constructed. Given that these figures are only up to the year 2000, the current situation is certainly far worse. «Unfortunately on most islands, the prevailing attitude is that growth equals construction,» said Professor Dimitris Katzourakis of Patras University’s school of architecture. «People reinvest the money they earn from renting rooms in the summer on building even more rooms. If you fly over any one of these islands you will see continual stretches of built-up area. If this ‘development’ continues, within one generation most of the Cycladic Islands will be spoiled.» The state has not done much about the situation. During the mid-1990s, when construction outside the town limits had spiraled out of control, the Environment and Public Works Ministry and the Aegean Ministry decided to establish Housing Control Zones (ZOE), to designate certain settlements as listed, and whole islands or islets as places of natural beauty. Architect Elsa Vayianou was a member of the committee that drafted some of the legislative texts for the Aegean Ministry. «There was no real institutional framework with specific terms for construction on each island,» she said. «Perhaps because every new restriction met with intense opposition locally, with demonstrations, threats and pressure. The locals do not realize that the natural environment has to be preserved, even if it is only to sell their tourism product at a higher price.» On many islands, surveys were not completed or made official because of local opposition. In other cases where the surveys were made official, many of the restrictions originally provided for were not included, while others have been ignored. «Many islands had good surveys, but since the ZOE were set up, very few have gone as far as becoming decrees,» said architect-town planner Yiannis Karanikas. «Many of them concerned the protection of just parts of islands.» «A major problem with the ZOE that have been set up is the absence of bans on construction, or else their restrictions are evaded by the architectural inspection committees and repeated revisions,» said Kriton Arsenis, head of the Hellenic Society’s Program for Sustainable Development in the Aegean. «For example, the ZOE for Myconos recently established by the Environment and Public Order Ministry has not banned housing in protection zones and has retained the use of a mathematical model that allowed construction up to 50 meters from the shore.» «Considering the pressure brought to bear on any attempt at imposing restrictions, I believe it is not feasible to talk about a universal ban on construction outside town limits,» said Vayianou. «Nevertheless, it could be introduced gradually on certain islands, in combination with financial incentives.» Katzourakis also believes that a total ban would not be implemented. «We are now looking at a compromise between how much an island wants to be built up and how much it wants to protect its environment.»
