Federal Zone Land
By Peter Thompson, Attorney-At-Law
The land within 20 meters (about 65 feet) of the mean (average) high tide of the ocean is federal property and cannot be bought, sold, leased, or owned by any private person, Mexican or non-Mexican. This land is called the "Zona Federal Maritimo Terrestre" (Federal Maritime Land Zone), commonly called "federal zone". The laws creating and regulating the federal zone are Article 27 of the Constitution, Articles 3, 4, 6 and 9 of the Law of Waters, Article 5 of the General Law of National Property. Here is an update on the new developments in connection with federal zone. 1. The 20 meters starts at "firm high ground", so if there are cliffs, the measurements starts at the top of the cliff, not the tide-line. So, don't automatically assume you are looking at a private property lot just because the high tide line is more than 20 meters away. This means that some cliff lots could be partially or entirely in the federal zone even if they are far from the high tide line. 2. Federal zone beach is public land, so no one can exclude the public or get exclusive use of the beach. Of course, this is beneficial to the public. We have a similar law in California. 3. According to Article 27 of the Mexican Constitution, use of the federal zone can only be by "concesion" granted by the federal government. A person or company which owns the private land next to the federal zone can obtain the right of nonexclusive use of the federal zone by means of a document called a "Concession" (concesion). This permits the use of the federal zone for a house, garden, wall, business, etc. for a specified period of time like 6 months, 1 year, 5 years, etc. depending on the time period the government wants to grant. 4. A fee is charged for use of the federal zone, depending on the geographic region and intended use. So, land for a hotel near a city will have a high fee, and land for a trailer in a remote area will have a low fee. You can think of this like "rent".
