Throw open the doors

There’s a glaring contradiction between the privately owned plots on the cadastral map of Beirut and legislation regarding ownership along the coast. A 1925 decree — still in force today — says that the coast is public property. It defines coast, or “maritime public domain,” as the “seashore until the farthest distance that the wave[s]could reach in winter and sand shores and pebbles.” This should automatically mean that the sandy beach of Ramlet al-Baida is unquestionably public property. Yet the cadastral maps for the area show that the sandy beach has been divided into parcels, which are today almost entirely privately owned. Executive has not yet been able to ascertain how this happened, but the fact remains that it did. And this is not just an esoteric legal incongruity: it affects one of the city’s last undeveloped coastal areas, including its only sandy beach. Clearly, a reasonable solution is needed