Ten months after the Marine Department ordered 58 structures on Koh Larn demolished for encroaching on public land, 39 of them are still standing.
Director Eakaraj Kantaro said Aug. 28 that lawsuits against property owners filed earlier are waiting for adjudication at the Supreme Administrative Court.
In November last year, the department vowed to take action against owners of 58 structures deemed to be encroaching on waterfront land or the sea on Koh Larn.
At the time, Eakaraj said 28 resorts, 15 houses, six corridors, two wooden balconies, two pedestrian bridges and a fish pond were in violation of the Navigation in the Thai Waters Act of 1913.
The property owners were ordered to demolish or modify their structures within 60 days. All the owners appealed to the Administrative Court. Two-thirds of them didn’t.
The law does allow for continued encroachment if the offending property is essential to a career, such as fishing baskets, or, in some cases if the structure was built before 1994. However, the director said at the time, no resorts or businesses set up for personal gain ever qualify.
The now-dissolved junta allowed encroaching landowners to apply for a variance, but the owners of the 39 structures never applied, Eakaraj said.
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