The Dreams Tulum hotel was closed at the end of September by the Mexican EPA along with about 11 others along the coast near Tulum. The word was that they had violated environmental laws and also that they only had building permits for 150 rooms, with about 6oo or more completed. For a while the place was locked down and guests were relocated to other properties. I have to complement the staff in that everyone I spoke with were fairly satisfied with the relocation.
It appears that the change in the Federal Government brought a new supervisor to Profepa, their environmental protection agency. Since August, hotel construction projects have been closing due to stricter observance of the regulations that protect the beaches. In Akumal, a Spanish group named Sole Melea (sp) were building on a section of the coast known as the turtle habitat. This was supposed to be protected bay with no development. The owner of a small hotel in Akumal sued to have the development stopped and succeeded. There were others that were affected. This was going on in August of 2007.
In September of 2008, further south, along the beach nearer the ruins in Tulum, about 11 properties were closed, including Dreams. Many environmental violations affecting the beachs and mangroves were sited. I suspect much of this was against the rather primitive cabana hotels on the road to Sian Kan.
Some were;
Blue Azule, The Mezzanine, Diamond, etc. I don’t really know the status of these or the others. If you want to read a poorly translated description of what happened go to this site’
http://forums.locogringo.com/forums/tm.asp?m=945717&mpage=1&key=
or just GOOGLE Dreams Tulum Profepa
Now for the good news, the management of Dreams, Tulum negotiated a fine and reopened on November 15th without much, if any, demolition needed.