Contradictory strategic priorities in Vama Veche

The impact of transition and rapid development on a traditional (semi)urban

community

This draft case study describes an interesting, but not unique, situation in the EU
countries, of a special traditional community facing the effects of rapid development
during the transition period. We are dealing here with two settlements in the southern
part of the Romanian coast, close to the border with Bulgaria - Vama Veche and 2 Mai -
with unique characteristics. Both are rural settlements, belonging to the commune of
Limanu. In reality, however, these small fishing villages have been used since the
interwar period as holiday destinations by the bohemian groups of the Romanian
intellectual elite, who over time have forgotten the strong sentimental ties with the
place, and even began to acquire small properties in the area. As a result, the villages
have become summer extensions of social life in the cities of Mangalia and Constanta,
especially for snobs in Bucharest and Cluj. The rapid emergence of the free market after
1989, the privatisation of land ownership and the influx created have recently
threatened the old “Vama spirit”. The local pressures of rapid real estate development,
the commercial interests involved and the current price of land in the two villages
generate a set of problems and conflicts that are more characteristic to the urban
community than to a rural one.

The long tradition of alternative tourism

Of the 4 villages composing the commune of Limanu, only two are located on the shores
of the Black Sea: 2 Mai, and further south, Vama Veche (see Appendix 1). The facts and
dilemmas discussed in this case study only refer to these two villages, and, especially,
to Vama Veche. The settlements were founded at the end of the 18th century by low-
density mixed populations living in the province of Dobrogea: Turks, Tatars,
Bulgarians, Romanians and Russian refugees from the Tsarist empire, practitioners of
tendencies deemed heretical in Orthodoxy - the Lipovans. At the beginning of the
twentieth century, the population became more homogenous, after a series of
population exchanges between Romania, Bulgaria and other Balkan countries. The old
Turkish names of the villages have been replaced by the new ones. The inhabitants,
mostly Romanians, plus a small group of Lipovans, members of the Orthodox Old-Rite
Church, earned their living from small-scale farming and fishing. During the
communist period, a cooperative was built, as everywhere in the country, but this did
not affect the daily life of these poor peasants - at least not to an extent similar to other
areas of the country, because fishing took place here in a more spread community
network. In addition, work on the plots next to the house and illegal but tolerated
poaching continued as undisturbed as before. Only 4-5% of the men of the Limanu
commune are employed full time in fisheries, but almost half of them still fish from time
to time to round off their income. The population of these villages has increased slightly
in recent decades. The number of permanent households in 2020 was 862 in 2 Mai and
126 in Vama Veche. The total population of Limanu commune is 4,700 inhabitants,
compared to about half in 1938.
When the place began to be used by the townspeople as a quiet corner on the coast,
away from the hustle and bustle of the casinos in Constanta, the two villages became
the refuge of the artistic community (and the nudist colony) who had spent their
summers in Balchik, 50 km away further south, after the city became part of Bulgaria in
1940. Surprisingly, the tradition continued during the communist regime, when Vama
Veche, just a few minutes’ walk from the border, became known in the sixties as an oasis
of freedom, away from the scrutinising eyes of the authorities. “Poets and writers came
and lived with fishermen”, says an intellectual from Bucharest who has been coming to
Vama since 1967, leaving nostalgically aside the less pleasant sides, and remembering
the idyllic part of the situation. “It became a large colony of intellectual nudists who
kind of bothered the communists.” However, not too much, because writers and
intellectuals could lie in the sun more or less covered, philosophising on the sand, under
the shade of reed. Outside the raids, Vama and 2 Mai formed a small oasis of tolerance
of totalitarian State standards.

“They were still bothering people by checking their ID cards, because they were close
to the border, but otherwise they were left alone,” recalls a Vama veteran. In a way, the
special restrictions caused by the proximity to the border helped to keep the place
untouched. Moving to the area or even building a house would have blocked the
scrutiny eye of the border police - clement otherwise, because what could happen from
the poorest part of Bulgaria?
Some of these tourists lived in tents on the beach, others rented rooms in the
surrounding houses. The relationship with the hosts was strong and stable: the families
returned to the same house every year, at about the same time of year. The villagers
could not change the houses a lot to the liking of tourists - this was not allowed, and
renting was illegal because no tax was paid, so they did not want to draw attention.
They were gathering to the summer kitchen with their entire family, freeing up the
“front rooms” for summer tourists. The result was the interaction between the families
of villagers and the two or three groups (often also families) that lived together in the
same household, sharing the kitchen and the bathroom (if there was one). There had to
be a high degree of compatibility between them. Lunches and dinners were served
together, in the form of “garden tourism”, “Pantagruelian meals” that led to get
mutually acquainted. The ties created in the good times of Vama led to the formation of
stable friendships with common interests and values. While the more noble bohemians
rented rooms in the village, the true Vama regulars slept in tents on the beach and
honoured the local customs especially in Vama Veche (see some typical houses with
gardens, and tents on the beach at the end of Appendix 3).

Conflict of values

Until 1989, this style of holiday, completely different from mass tourism organized for
the working class by the socialist State, was tolerated underground, because its impact
on housing or local income was minimal: those who came did not spend much, even if
most of them had fairly good income. However, the 1990s brought a major change,
when private initiative, completely banned before, thawed. Although everyone enjoyed
the end of communism, the traditional Vama community was less benevolent to the
reed paradise. Ceausescu’s overthrow put an end to the ban on construction. Motels and
nightclubs have begun to appear on the bare ground, many of them exploiting the
legislative loophole regulating development - or, more often, its poor implementation.
Weekend tourists began gathering bunches at Vama and 2 Mai, which had initially been
exempt from deafening nightclubs, mass tourism and high-rise hotels built elsewhere
in the communist decades. Today, teenagers dominate in beach bars such as “La spital”,
and tequila is fashionable, not traditional drinks. The tables have plates that designate
the department: gynaecology, paediatrics, etc.
Under the new circumstances, the intimate atmosphere quickly disappeared: the
owners began to build multi-storey structures on their patches of land, using non-
traditional materials, covering more and more land with buildings, as it was more
profitable to host tourists; therefore peaceful gardens disappear, restaurants, bars and
clubs gain ground to the sea, invading the beach, despite existing regulations,
implanting heavy concrete structures in the sand instead of the old reed shelters and
sheds. Even tourists change their profile, becoming not only numerous, but belonging
to the general trend, valuing comfort and fun more than the old unconventional
atmosphere. (Fig. 1) This may be because more and more people coming were not part
of the original Vama community. Also, because some of the former, high-income
professionals, have less time today than they used to, for spending 4-5 days a year
isolated in a small village on the coast. The tax-evasion strategies from before 1989 lost
most of their appeal. In other words, Vama Veche and 2 Mai began more and more to
resemble the other ordinary resorts on the Black Sea coast.

Fig. 1 Trends regarding the types of tourists from Vama Veche after 1990

The general
trend
bar, club, beach
“Garden” tourism
“upper-class
bohemians”

Tents on the
beach
“Vama
bohemians”
It is equally true that the locals and the hippies who grow old and were their lifelong
friends a few years ago no longer have the same values. They may have had common
interests in the old regime, but they naturally began to diverge in the new
circumstances. The waves of ordinary tourists have determined the prices, which may
be unpleasant for customers, but good for suppliers. The price of land exploded from
$2-5/sqm in the early 90’s to €30-40/sqm today for land recently included in the built-
up area (more details below). Last year, a young investor invested €150,000 in rebuilding
a small motel with a club to look like an Inca temple. In some parts of Vama, especially
on the main street leading to the beach and the water, the density has reached almost
an urban level. The buildings practically cover the land, leaving no room at all for
gardens or intermediate passage areas, and parking has become a problem. In short, the
locals, both peasants and townspeople who own houses and land in Vama, have begun
to take advantage of the many ways in which new opportunities create substantial
profits from summer tourism on the coast. It is estimated that a rented room produces
€2-3000 net income per season, which means that Vama Veche earns around €0.5 million
annually from tourism, and 2 Mai double. It is true that much of this amount goes to the
few motels operated as companies by employers who do not live here permanently, so
not all profit remains in the villages. However, given that prices are high and
increasingly more people are renting rooms compared to the period before 1989, and
because this calculation does not include the money spent in bars and restaurants,
which did not even exist at the time,1 the changes are dramatic compared to past
standards.

Most of those in the old bohemian Vama community tend not to see these changes well,
considering them as ominous clues to “wild capitalism”. The proliferation of bad-taste
private buildings, which are “painful to the eye”, completely different than the local
tradition (see some examples in Appendix 3) - spectacularly confirms this perception of
the decline of values. Bars and clubs near the beach destroy the old atmosphere of
freedom and tranquillity, especially because during the competitive struggle to attract
customers, “bar wars” broke out, in which the owners try to silence their competition
by bombarding with more and more decibels, day and night, broadcast through
megaphones. The music is no longer the same as the one once heard at Vama; it has
become a post-90 disco, Latin, and more and more often “manele” (sentimental-dubious
music with oriental and gypsy roots, extremely popular in the Balkans). This detail is
important because the historical tourism in Vama had close links with the cultural
identity of the groups, and the style of the music listened to was blatantly - or rather
perceptibly loud.
The penetration of both the unacceptable “manele” and aggressive buildings show the
imminent triumph of newly earned money and low living values, which is too difficult
for the bohemian community, especially the Vama regulars living in tents on the Vama
beach or in its neighbourhood. A police raid in 2003, in an attempt to clean the beach of
this spontaneous and traditional form of camping, according to a law that had not been
considered until then, led to a spectacular wave of protests.

1The price of meals before 1989 was included in the “accommodation rate”, which is common in self-sustaining
households. In fact, due to food shortages, most tourists came with large supplies of food.
The bohemians, who were not only students, but also middle-aged professionals - not
at all poor - formed an association. Salvati Vama Veche (Save Vama Veche, SVV) to
oppose the intentions of central and local authorities. They argued that the government
should repeal the “anti-tent” law in Vama and 2 Mai, provided the tent occupants abide
by the unwritten rules of the place and keep the beach clean.
From August 2003, the association has organized an annual open-air rock and blues
concert at Vama, StufStock (in memory of Woodstock from which they were explicitly
inspired). The turnout was impressive - 30,000 people at each edition so far, which
proves that the event reached a more sensitive chord in many more, including people
too young to be part of the old Vama regulars.
SVV is managed by media entrepreneurs and PR companies, gathered around the
weekly magazine Academia Catavencu2.
The brand added modernity and attractiveness to the entire action, which explains the
success of the campaign. StufStock became a meeting place for all the action groups
declared progressive, not only for the environment, such as the Transylvanian Bird
Watchers, the fighters against the mining project at Rosia Montana, as well as the anti-
drug action groups and other charities. SVV claims that the real problem at Vama and
2 Mai is not the bohemian lifestyle. On the contrary, it is the uncontrolled development
- the construction on the beach, the deafening nightclubs, the powerful boats, and planes
- that threatens the local traditions and the fragile EcoMarine system. Along with other
conservation groups, the Museum of Marine Biology in Constanta, and a host of other
international organisations, the SVV association soon became highly active on the
technical side as well, starting to put pressure on the central government to adopt
stricter laws aimed at using the coast for development and tourism, including by
banning motorised water sports in the area.
The price of meals before 1989 was included in the “accommodation rate”, which is
common in self-sustaining households. In fact, due to food shortages, most tourists
came with large supplies of food.
At the same time, given its PR experience, SVV took care to avoid the image of aliens
who take advantage of the knowledge and resources they must impose something on
the community. They presented their actions in support of local authorities, which may
not have the necessary resources and knowledge to create a good development strategy.

Need for development - plan A

Everyone knew things were different. Like other Romanian local administrations,
Limanu did not have the power and could not impose effective regulations on
construction and tourism activities, even if they wanted to. In fact, as elected
representatives of the locals, who - whether peasants or newcomers - had the same
rational interests - rapid development, rapid reconversion of farmland for construction
purposes and a land market as free as possible - they did not even try to do so.
Authorities have been happy to issue licences and permits, even overstepping national
law, as long as the new investments brought more and more tourists. The coast has
become more and more populated, even in areas where nothing should have been built.

2 The equivalent of the better-known French newspaper Le Canard Enchaîné

Clubs, restaurants, and motels of all kinds were tacitly encouraged as sources of revenue
for the local budget. Local authorities obtain in Romania a fixed percentage of income
taxes collected on their territory3. Local authorities therefore have every reason to accept
any entrepreneurial investment that takes truly commercial forms, instead of family
associations, which use tourism as an additional activity, given that this field is unlikely
to create official jobs with taxes payable to the budget.
Second, the property tax is a local, established tax 4 and collected directly by local
authorities.
Although taxes are paid in a high percentage in Romania, the local authorities consider
that it is politically feasible for the profitability to increase by accepting as many
businesses as possible in their constituency. Third, local councils may introduce a
special business tax on hotels, motels and other types of businesses offering
accommodation and meals, which may be proportional to the number of rooms or
defined as a percentage of gross income. All of them choose this possibility and collect
taxes. However, they believe that incomes are higher for large tour operators than from
small family associations. After years of efforts, conflicts and negotiations between
councillors and citizens, the Limanu Local Council voted a very permissive General
Urban Plan (PUG), which legalised all the changes that had taken place before and
opened the possibility of further development on the beach and in other restricted
places. Difficulties arose that were overcome in this process, which explains why it took
so long: the development of the PUG and the local development strategy had begun
years ago. First, approval was needed for the transfer of land belonging to Limanu
commune into the built-up area, but which, until then, had been used only for
agricultural purposes (i.e., the transfer from outside built-up area to the built-up area).
These were not just marginal adjustments to the boundaries of the old uninhabitable
area - the Mayor’s Office and councillors wanted a massive expansion of the built-up
area, especially in Vama Veche, which practically doubled in area, comparable to the
previous PUG (see Appendix 1 and Appendix 2). By law, PUGs that introduce changes on
such a scale must be established by agreement by the County Council5 and the Ministry
of Transport. Few years ago, when the scandal broke out, the PUG had been approved
by the Constanta County Council (although it was later denied that it was a “final”
decision), but not by the Ministry. Such delays were not uncommon, as documents
happen to be withheld at the Ministry, and, in many towns, PUGs begin to take effect
on site before they have the final stamp of approval.

There were other difficulties as well. Restoring old property rights after 50 years of
communism was known to be difficult. Socialist agricultural cooperatives were
dissolved in 1990 and the land had to be returned to the former owners, but it took years
to identify plots, owners, and heirs, and to resolve the inevitable conflicts that arose
before reaching a consensus and issuing the property titles6. When converting from

3 In other words, PIT is a national tax.

4 According to the national legislation, the local administration has autonomy in establishing the basis
and value of this tax
5 The second level of local authorities; Romania has 41 counties and approximately 3,000 local administrative

units (urban and rural).

6 Process still unfinished
outside the built-up area to built-up area, things must be very precise, because every
piece of land matters. When the council decided to supplement the built-up area to the
south (8 on the map in Appendix 2), it was found to be 1.5 m less at sea than it actually
was on paper. Years of conflict whether the council should cut from the side-lines and
compensate the owners, or take between 10-25 cm from each owner, led nowhere, and
tensions escalated. Solution came from a team that included the Mayor and several
influential councillors who managed to persuade the Ministry of Defence to drop claims
on a small, abandoned training ground south of Vama (grey, by the sea, south of area 8
on the map in Appendix 2). This land was immediately brought into the built-up area
and used as a buffer to solve all the problems and compensate everyone for the moral
losses until then7.

However, the most bizarre and unsolvable situation arose with the inclusion in Vama
of the Faleza (Cliff), a strip of land, 2.5 km long, between Vama Veche and 2 Mai,
located between the sea and the national road (see Appendix 1 and Appendix 2). This
land had also been used for agricultural purposes, and the plots are typical for the
dysfunctional structure in Romania today, a situation generated by successive
agricultural reforms (starting with the one after the First World War), and the
inheritance practices according to which the land is divided equally among children:
long and thin pieces of land, which have become exceedingly difficult to incorporate
into structures. It is estimated that there are about 600 owners of the Faleza, each with
plots perpendicular to the sea. The length of the plot varies between 100-400m, and the
average width is 4.5m (usually between 3-8 m). It is clear that nothing can be built on
these plots. People started to buy and sell on the Faleza a long time ago, so most of
them are aliens - they have bought land from locals for holiday homes - some of them
managing to create a viable property. It is interesting that some of them are former
Vama regulars, well-known artists and intellectuals, who are now on the other side of
the barricade, in the camp of the permissive.
However, few owners are in this situation, because it is difficult to find enough
neighbouring plots for sale at the same time, or to avoid the strategic games of those
who own land with “blackmail potential”.

For this reason, no major entrepreneur came to the Faleza, although recently it seems
that several checked it out. The Faleza is estimated at €20-25 million current price, which
is too much for someone who has to negotiate with hundreds of individual owners. In
addition, the leitmotif of the Faleza is “likely”: the exact number and identity of the
owners is not known to local authorities - or at least so it is stated to the authorities and
consultants involved in preparing documents for the PUG. This is true to some extent,
due to the poor local management of the archives and to the unfinished reform of the
Romanian cadastral system; otherwise, all data are in the public domain in one way or
another. It is equally true, however, that those in the Limanu local administration have
an interest in keeping the sensitive information about land ownership and availability
to themselves only, which explains the current uncertainty and confusion in which

7The remaining new land was quickly plotted out and leased on a long-term basis. For some reason, the team was
over-represented, so to speak, by the beneficiaries of these concessions
many local documents and strategies have been left. The problem could get worse, as
the authorities are putting a lot of pressure to get approval for the addition of land to
the Faleza, on the other side of the national road (see Appendix 2).

The PUG adopted by the Local Council was very liberal, in the sense that it practically
did not include specifications related to the definition of the profile of a settlement -
percentage of land with buildings on it, “withdrawals” from the property limit adjacent
to the road, height and appearance of buildings, etc. The limit of coastal protection was
set at the minimum allowed by national legislation: 50 m from the water. In some central
areas from 2 Mai and Vama Veche, Gf+4-storey buildings were authorised8 and two
Gf+6-storey hotels are in the design status. No solution has been offered to the Faleza
problem in the PUG and the attached documents (such as the Building Regulations, still
in draft form), do not contain specific regulations to be adopted to solve the problems
specific to mixed land use for commercial and residential purposes in such a small town
(e.g., noise pollution from bars and clubs).

In the rush to expand, allocate and develop the land, it has not been detailed enough
that insufficient local infrastructure needs to be rebuilt, nor has it been specified who
will pay for it. Traffic congestion, parking and lack of plumbing pose serious problems
for Vama.
Given that all of this must be covered under a publicly acceptable umbrella, a Local
Development Plan has been developed to put into words what the PUG looked like in
maps and technical indicators. The strong point of this strategy was the objective of
allowing the development of 2 Mai and Vama Veche in order to increase their capacity
to receive tourists from 16,000 per series at present, to approximately 53,000 in the
future, in both towns. This goal became the leitmotif in all discussions of the Local
Council, all subsequent decisions and subsequent plans being subordinated to this goal.

The need for sustainability - plan B

It is understandable then the shock of the local authorities - and maybe of all the parties
involved - when, after the energetic campaign of the SVV association and the enormous
visibility and media coverage after the first edition of the StufStock concert, the PUG was
suspended by the Ministry in the fall of 2003. In addition, a series of inspections were
initiated by the central agencies to check the legality of the most recent constructions,
land use, beach, restaurant and motel facilities, etc. As usual, the inspections were more
unpleasant than effective. However, the PUG suspension was a fatal blow to local
stakeholders: land investments by both locals and residents froze in anticipation of a
price explosion.

In making this decision, the Ministry fit perfectly in the authority it must support the
national legal framework, and numerous technical objections were raised against the
PUG. For example, the coastal protection area of only 50m from the water was
considered “unjustifiably narrow” when it came to the neighbouring “Aquatorium”

8 Ground floor plus four storeys.

(marine nature reserve). When the Secretary of State in charge of PUGs, an experienced
urban planner, saw the zoning map of the Faleza, with all the existing narrow plots, it
seems that he said that “as things are, you can only build a cemetery here”. It ws found
that the PUG had been contracted by the Local Council to a group of architects and
urban planners from Mangalia, with little credibility and experience in this type of
activity, just because they were very cheap. Despite the kind words contained in the
Local Development Plan, it seemed to contain a major contradiction: although the main
stated objective was to quadruple the capacity to receive tourists at Vama and 2 Mai,
the functions assigned to the newly added land were mostly residential. In other words,
the development objective seemed to be only the cover for the intentions of local
decision-makers to obtain additional land and build individual houses for personal use
(important, especially for the locations in Limanu and Hagieni, far from the seafront).

However, the central decisions in this case were also influenced by political calculations.
After all, the entire Vama protest began when police, along with the Environmental
Guard, both central institutions, tried to end a long and respected tradition of beach
camping, and evacuate Vama regulars from tents. As a result, the first attacks against
the Ministry of Tourism were launched by the SVV association, which coordinated the
entire action. When things worsened, the government did a pirouette, probably
realising that it was not good to oppose a large media and PR group, especially not a
year before the national elections,9 and that it is good to be friendly with them. So, they
said that there was nothing wrong with the tents on the beach after all, and that the
protesters are correct when they say that the constructions on the seaside have gone
crazy. After a careful review of the situation, they noticed that neither the government
nor the ruling Political Party have major interests in Vama or nearby, so why not upset
the local administration in Limanu, where it happened that the Mayor was in opposition
(liberal), therefore, the PUG was suspended. On the other hand, SVV decided to take a
constructive approach and get out of the conflicting logic in which the local
administration of Limanu was against everyone. First, they started to participate in the
meetings of the Local Council and to explain to its members the alternative idea of
development in Vama. They stressed the need for increased efforts to modernize the
already insufficient local infrastructure, even before the 4-fold increase in the
accommodation capacity. There is an urgent need for a sewerage system, which is also
considered a priority by citizens, but it will not be built until local authorities take a
proactive stance and seek funding. The members of the SVV association provided a
presentation of the European funding programs to the Council.

Following the initial suspension of the PUG, support was provided to local authorities
for documentation to hire another consultant to work on an optimised PUG plan, and
the Mayor was assisted in accessing a special national fund through which the central
government pays for such PUGs launched by any candidate local government.

(It is not that the people of Limanu did not know about this fund beforehand, but they
probably did not bother with all the necessary documents, or, more likely, they thought
that “who has the money orders”, so better to get the ministry out of the equation
altogether). The auction took place quickly and the contract was won by an experienced
Romanian-German consulting company from Cluj, which is expected to carry out the
work concerning the PUG and annexes thereof sometime this year. The package will
include all the guidance elements that were missing from the previous plan, such as the
clear delimitation of functions in the neighbourhood, regulations regarding the scale
and height of buildings, as well as the percentage of land that can be covered with
permanent constructions. It will address other issues that remain unresolved so far, such
as car parks, alleys, and fences.
In the end, SVV started the contribution with local labour (through a volunteer program
that cleans the beach during the summer) and expertise (architects and builders who
offer the local council house plans according to local tradition - see typical Dobrogean
houses, old and rebuilt, in Appendix 3).

They are trying to explain to local decision-makers, using examples from elsewhere,
what an irreparable disaster would occur on the Faleza if the area became a mixture of
small “fenced communities” separated by strips of abandoned wasteland.

The central part of the SVV effort, which will materialize in the new form of the PUG,
will be an alternative local development plan. The strategic objective of this plan, unlike
the previous one, is not to add capacity, so that more tourists can be received at the same
time in the summer season. The Romanian season is short, at best a maximum of 3
months a year, of which the really seasonal months are only July and August, provided
the weather is good. The goal is to build controlled, while maintaining tradition and
trying to extend the season so that revenues are substantial. To do this, tourists must be
offered something else in addition to the beach and standard entertainment, such as
small cultural festivals. Vama can appear on the map as a pleasant destination for small
short-term businesses throughout the year.

To what extent all this helps the local administration or more bothers (greater
transparency has brought with it other good practices in the decision-making process)
- it is not known. Many entrepreneurs see their plans disturbed, and even newcomer
tourists to Vama are more than surprised by the SVV campaigns. “Why save Vama
Veche?” asks a tourist who has come several times in recent years and stays in rented
rooms. “Change is normal, and it’s better now than it was before.” “It was an abandoned
village, and we raised the standards”, says the owner of the Inca-style hotel and club
mentioned earlier. Together with other investors in Vama, he even wonders if SVV is
not just a cover for some business groups, especially the old ones entering the Vama
market who now want to block the entry of competition.
In other words, local authorities are not fully convinced that the new course of events is
realistic or beneficial for residents. First of all, they emphasise that those who plunge
into turbulent waters, relying on the extension of the tourist season, should do it with
their own money, not with that of others. Expanding to at least 4-5 months a year or
attracting other categories of visitors, such as business tourists coming to conferences or
holiday homes, requires serious investment, which needs to be recovered through more
lucrative forms of entertainment, such as night bars, water sports, and more. It was also
shown that SVV does not have realistic solutions for solving the growing flow of
tourists, who come anyway in July and August, whether or not they are welcome.

Tourism in Vama tents and rooms rented from villagers cannot be sustainable when the
flow of tourists doubles or even triples. The significant StufStock concerts only increase
the problem, making Vama even more fashionable and gathering thousands of rock fans
in a place that does not have the necessary basic facilities.
Finally, and probably the most unpleasant aspect is the following: who has the right to
decide that the locals continue to live in small and old houses, with thatched or tiled
roofs, with stinking coal stoves, just because it looks picturesque for people coming from
outside, once every two years for a week or two? All the more so as they have the
resources to install ugly gas pipes, new cheap plastic double glazed windows and better
metal roofing with pipes and drains, but they do not have enough money or knowledge
to use state-of-the-art techniques and materials for improving functionality and keeping
the traditional look? How will locals be persuaded to use ready-made plans and model
homes if they prove to be more expensive than other solutions that offer a similar level
of functionality? It is irrational to expect - says the Mayor of Limanu - a new house to
look like the old ones, even if it is built with traditional materials, when the main source
of income of the family has changed from agriculture to tourism. “We are dealing with
different people, who think differently, and we can’t set rules to make them look and
behave the way we want, because we saw some beautiful pictures of the place in the
sixties.” The authorities are supported in this attitude by most residents, not only by the
poor peasants, but also by the new rich who have bought properties near the beach and
are not willing to see their values fall sharply due to regulations restricting the freedom
to build on the property.

Political issues and compromises

In this short case study, we can identify some key issues, which may prove relevant to
other rural or urban communities facing similar problems.
Do non-resident bohemian groups have the right to interfere with the decisions made
by the locals in Vama Veche? Are they a legitimate part of the community just because
they have come here for decades, and contributed in some way to creating the current
profile of Vama and its cultural tradition? In more general terms, to what extent do
outside benefactors (experts, consultants, supporters, scholars, and others) have a right
to an opinion in local decisions when only residents pay taxes and feel the consequences
of these decisions on their personal well-being?
• Which of the priorities are more important if they do not convergence - the local
community, focused on rapid development, or the broader ones, of the “enlightened
society”, which is more inclined towards conservation and sustainability? Who decides
what short term and long term mean in these cases?
• What are the appropriate mechanisms for reconciling conflicting priorities in similar
situations, where in a developing society local community are driven to reach prosperity
as soon as possible (material values), while enlightened elites have a longer-term, post-
materialistic perspective? In such situations, a cost-benefit analysis leads to obviously
contradictory results, depending on the dominant point of view. Who can decide that a
certain community should become a cultural reservation against the will of the majority
of its members, whose life is not even as idyllic as it may seem to outsiders
For example, fishing in Limanu is a difficult and dangerous occupation, traditionally
associated with a certain degree of fatalism and alcoholism. Although fishermen can be
charming hosts - who provide a good time to professionals who are tired of working
during the year and who come to rent rooms here a few weeks a year, there is no
denying that these fishermen are also trapped in a severe poverty trap. Apart from
fishing, the issue is similar to that faced by urban planners who try to preserve the
traditional features of a traditional area of a city.
• Are the “true interests” of future generations represented in any way in this litigation?
By whom?
• Is there any chance to create a local constituency with direct interest, material in
cultural conservation and sustainability, and thus to avoid the dilemmas of public
action encountered in the case of Vama Veche? Are these constituencies issues that arise
naturally, or should they be created through outside intervention?
• Are the arguments presented by SVV and the Government strong enough to justify
the limitation of local autonomy by central intervention, as happened when the old PUG
was suspended and a new one was drafted, paid for and under the supervision of the
Ministry? Does it create such dangerous precedents for intervention from the centre on
local affairs, in many other places where media interest and surveillance is less strong,
especially in countries with a long tradition of institutional centralisation and abuse of
local government at the central level?
• Are the above arguments enough to serve as a basis for a serious restriction of
property rights (such as the inappropriate use of land), and to prevent citizens from
increasing their income? And the result will probably be the reduction of the market
value of the property owned by the locals? In the specific case of the Faleza, does this
situation justify the public expropriation to ensure a coherent model of development,
based on the argument of long-term public utility, as in the case of a new motorway?
• If we decide in favour of the intervention, what are the appropriate mechanisms for
consultation and decision-making? Once decisions have been made, we can realistically
expect to consistently implement ambitious and intrusive regulations, such as the
General Zoning Plan in a weak and ever-changing institutional environment, as is
usually the case in transition countries or in other developing nations? If we cannot be
sure that the implementation is correct and consistent, is it worth trying again, or will
we end up with unwanted effects that can discredit the whole process? Implementation
is often a neglected element of benevolent and ambitious planners. As the Mayor of
Limanu points out, there is a real war of attrition between the authorities and peasants
in the Romanian villages, regarding what and where it can be built. The villagers are
exceptionally good at testing the patience and willingness of the authorities to act by
rising all sorts of “grey spaces” - barns, temporary shelters and various other
appurtenances, as a first step towards a permanent expansion of the house. The
implementation of regulations such as those contained in the new PUG may require a
level of energy and consistency in actions that local institutions do not have, at least not
at present.
• Who should pay for the development of local infrastructure and public utilities if the
new “progressive” PUG is approved, following public pressure and constraints from
central institutions?
• Do the actions of militant groups to save the heritage produce undesirable side effects?
For example, the awareness campaign (and especially the concert) can contribute to an
increased flow of tourists coming to Vama, perceived as “the place where we have to go
in the summer”, and thus to more tourists belonging to the general current.
Paradoxically, given that the SVV strategy (and ideas about the future of the PUG) is
moderate, acknowledge the facts on the ground and try to optimise practices in the
future, does it even favour the first ones who entered the local market and inadequately
protect them from newcomers (“bar war”)?