How The Casitas Were Built… And Why They Can Be Removed | Compai Explains

Added: 2026-05-09

[00:00:00]Welcome to Compai's Expat Channel. I'm Compai. I am Sosua's voice of reason.

[00:00:05]Guys, in this video I really want to bring everybody up to speed on how the Dominicans were able to build the casitas on the beach in the first place.

[00:00:14]Because to be able to understand the whole context of what's going on with the beach replenishment project, you got to know how it began. But before I do that, let me pay some bills.

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[00:00:39]>> [music] >> When you're ready to reserve [music] at Casa de Compai, my contact information is in the description down below.

[00:01:05]Guys, thanks for watching my advertisement for my business, Casa de Compai. If you're looking for a vacation rental, an extended stay, reach out to me at my website at www.casadecompai.com.

[00:01:19]More contact information in the description down below. So, I want to be able to give everybody the backstory.

[00:01:25]How were they able to build the casitas on the beach to begin with? Well, we need to go back in time. We need to go back to when President Balaguer was in power.

[00:01:36]He was the president after Trujillo, the dictator, and he passed a law that said, "If you live on a highway, you can build a small little shop, small business, in the setback." So, what is a setback? A setback is a is a distance from the middle of the road into the undeveloped part, the curb side. Okay? We got them in the States.

[00:02:03]If you've ever done any kind of serious construction in the States, you have to conform to the setbacks when you go before the planning and zoning board.

[00:02:11]Done it a bunch of times in New Jersey and it's a real pain in the butt.

[00:02:15]But the setback, the length of that setback or the depth of that setback depends on the size of the road you're on. If it's a highway, it's a federal setback. If it's a county road, it's a county setback. If it's a city road, it's a city setback. And what that setback does, it prevents people from building in that that area.

[00:02:37]To give you an example, the setback could be 50 ft. The setback could be 30 ft. So, why do they have setbacks? So, let's just take a federal road, a highway, cuz that's what we're talking about.

[00:02:49]They ever want to expand expand the highway, make it wider, they need the room to do it.

[00:02:58]If people are building permanent structures in that setback, it creates headaches.

[00:03:04]But Bully Guard said, you can put up a shack and you can sell fruit, you can sell some some wares to give the people an opportunity to make money. And my example for that is if you're going from Puerto Plata through the tunnel to Santiago, you see all these fruit stands in front of the tunnel. They're in the setback. That's why they look run down because they know they can get taken down anytime. When the government needs that land, they have the legal right to come in and take all that down.

[00:03:37]So guys, how does that affect Playa Sosua? Well, let's get into that.

[00:03:42]Guys, you can see Highway 5, the big green line.

[00:03:48]That's not the original highway.

[00:03:50]If you look up towards the ocean at the corner of the picture in picture what I'm in, you can see a little gray pathway.

[00:03:59]Right? What that is, that is the original highway. Most of your original highways, they ran along the ocean. So, this is in Encuentro and Encuentro is the easiest spot for me to detail this.

[00:04:12]Now, the original highway ran along the coast from Puerto Plata to Nagua.

[00:04:18]You can see it in Nagua perfectly.

[00:04:21]You can see it right here in Encuentro perfect cuz they haven't built it up.

[00:04:25]You can see where it it runs along the coast. It runs from Encuentro all the way to where Costa Azul is. Then it pops out again to the highway what we know as number five and then it goes through Cabarete all the way to Sabaneta.

[00:04:41]So, guys, with that being said, that's how they're able to build on Playas Sosua on Playas Sosua because the path that's in front of the shacks on Playas Sosua is the old highway. How does that tie into what I'm talking about with with the plazas?

[00:05:00]The government said, "We're taking that land back because they built everything in the setback and they built it on private property." Now, there's a lot of people running around town, YouTube content creators saying, "Oh, they're going to build up that land. There's going to be hotels. There's going to be condos." Guys, the land behind the beach is owned by one family out of Santiago.

[00:05:26]There's no plans right now for that land to get developed. What everybody's getting it wrong is the plan for the development is Armando's properties that are in front of his casino.

[00:05:40]That's what that's where you're seeing the two hotel chains come in and they already put that out. That's public knowledge. That's That's not me guessing. It's already been out there.

[00:05:50]So, that's nothing new.

[00:05:53]So, what about the two plazas?

[00:05:55]Okay. So, you have some some content creators out there saying the the poor man's getting screwed. They're taking advantage of the little guy. They're screwing everybody. Let me set the record straight.

[00:06:09]People built property on private land in the setback because the president gave them permission decades ago.

[00:06:19]Now, the government is changing the use of that land, so they're able to knock down those casitas. So, what is the government doing? What has it finished?

[00:06:30]It built a plaza.

[00:06:32]With the land donated by the owner of that property, by the way.

[00:06:37]That's public record. It's been out there for years.

[00:06:42]The people who have a business have two options.

[00:06:47]Option one is to take a casita in the new plaza.

[00:06:53]But, here's the kicker. Where they didn't own the land before, in the casitas, they get clear title.

[00:07:00]It's phenomenal. It's the way it should be done.

[00:07:04]So, they went from not owning the the land, just owning this this building and the structure, now they own the land and the structure.

[00:07:13]So, they have something tangible that they can sell. Something that's recognizable in a court of law.

[00:07:19]Okay?

[00:07:21]Or, the government gave them money and bought them out. So, nobody lost anything.

[00:07:28]They got compensated one way or another.

[00:07:32]Now, how does that affect the people that that just rent? Well, they have an opportunity to rent in the new places.

[00:07:38]The problem is a lot of people are just up in the air how it's going to work out. So, they're they're a little iffy about it. Understandable. That's part of doing business. You know, there's no guarantees that there's going to be a success.

[00:07:51]So, no, the little person didn't get screwed in the way that everybody's telling you did. Either the owners got a new casita with clear title, or they got bought out.

[00:08:05]A lot of people are upset, and they're blaming companies, they're blaming greedy capitalists. Let's call a spade a spade.

[00:08:15]If the beach association would have held the owners accountable for the maintenance of their casitas at a decent standard. So, that's where the beach association made one mistake. The second, they didn't force maintenance on their casitas. So, a lot of them looked like crap.

[00:08:32]What they should have said is if your place gets deteriorated, we're knocking it down, we're getting rid of it, and you're not going to be able to rebuild it. That spot is taken away.

[00:08:42]Because the association takes monthly dues from every casita on the beach.

[00:08:48]Second, they should have went to the city and said, "We need three things.

[00:08:53]We need proper water, proper sewage, and we need backup power."

[00:08:59]That's what they should have done. But, they didn't do it. So, things got to a level where they had to be addressed.

[00:09:05]Because in today's Google review world, you have people posting, "Oh, I got sick eating on Sosúa Beach. Oh, you can't There's no clean bathrooms." In today's world, you can't have that.

[00:09:19]So, the government addressed it.

[00:09:21]And in this new plazas, every tier has a bathroom. Thank you so much for watching this video. I hope you got something out of it. And guys, always remember, keep private personal and personal private. If you haven't subscribed, please subscribe. Hit the like button, and keep them great comments coming. Guys, peace out and God bless.