Over building, environmental impact, water quality, cleanliness, are concerns we all share as Costa Rica becomes increasingly popular with the international community and progresses in its development. These development concerns can’t be ignored, but for those looking in, one must also keep the activity in perspective.

Costa Rica is a popular place and visitors want quality services, accommodations, dwellings to buy and enjoy as leisure vacation properties, quality infrastructure etc. And Costa Rica wants to offer all this to its visitors! It is the thing to do when tourism is the country’s number one growth sector of its economy and number one income generator. Can we say the same for Tijuana Mexico? No we can’t! And being one of the top destinations in the world, this is not the type of tourism quality Costa Rica wants to be remembered by either. So, it is taking a responsible approach, with growing pains of course as the bulk of positive development has only begun to occur some 10-12 years ago making Costa Rica an infant in this development curve, to become better and more beautiful! 

Now when we talk about developing areas, in the beach areas for example, here is what we are talking about. Jaco & Herradura Beach for example, Jaco, the vast majority of higher density development is occurring; spans maybe 10 miles from the north to the south and 2 or 3 miles miles from the east, to the west ocean shoreline. Now this is not a big area by any means, and this is where the bulk of the high and moderate density development is occurring. New Plazas for shopping, some high rise (12-15 stories) luxury hotels and condo buildings, services, restaurants, shops, high end resorts like St Regis, Wyndahm, Marriot, Sonesta, are all part of a move to offer better quality amenities and service to visitors coming to Costa Rica and the Jaco area. An absolutely fabulous face lift replacing the old with the new. The land area is such a small pocket of development we can’t generalize and say Costa Rica is over building.

With this in perspective it is somewhat absurd to say CR is overbuilding! It’s important to the country, the community that this progress occur. It stimulates the community to improve many conditions that Costa Rica wants and needs to improve upon. Not only for the foreign visitor & real estate seekers, but for the local community itself, the futures of their communities, the local economies and futures of their children! 

Many other areas in the country that you read and/or hear about are also similarly sized pockets of development. These pockets of development typically concentrate themselves to similarly small land areas to what we described is the case in Jaco Beach.

Nobody is bulldozing in the middle of the jungles and rain forest to build huge developments. You just can’t do it and the country and the laws regulating development just don't & won’t allow it! For the overwhelming majority of developers here, the overall sentiments are Costa Rica’s natural beauty is part of the development planning and to be preserved and incorporated into the development in a regulated manner rather than removed and cleared for development.

Many developers contribute a great deal just by the mere presence in the country, like a catalyst for communities to seek international monetary funding for responsible sustainable development (a development model Costa Rica practices), to better the water systems, sewage treatment systems, waste disposal, beach cleanliness, quality of local infrastructure, local schools etc, and they contribute not only as a catalyst to international monetary funding but with funding contributions themselves and development knowhow. 

Let us never forget this important point. Most of the older development here is environmentally unfriendly (built prior to 10-12 years ago) because there were no controls back when they were built. So when we look at new development let us remember environmental regulation of these developments is in place and strict, and that this is an improvement for the environment in many ways that outweigh the negative impact of these developments.