Huatulco Developers Envision Integrating Resort, Environment

Tropical plants spice the night air. A Holiday Inn blends into a wooded cliff. Stars gleam above bays and inland forests, where electric lights are still a dim glow in the distance. Tourism officials said they want to largely keep it that way in Huatulco--despite plans to build Mexico’s biggest new resort.

Developers intend to construct scores of hotels, villas, restaurants and other businesses, expanding an initial surge of development in the late 1980s. But they insist they can both create jobs and preserve the ecology, saying they will refrain from the sort of overdevelopment that has tainted the environment in Cancun and Acapulco.

Huatulco’s development blueprint preserves 80,000 acres in their natural state. At least one of the region’s nine fish-filled bays is to stay undeveloped, reserved as a snorkeling park. High-rises are largely prohibited, and hotels must blend into the landscape.

“Most of us envision it to grow healthily and not become another Cancun,” said Elizabeth St. Germaine, an American who moved to Huatulco from Atlanta six years ago and owns a real estate office with her husband.

The new approach is evident. Sewage that might have oozed into the sea is treated and used to water palm trees, flowers and grass alongside roads and on golf courses. During the dry season, the greenery contrasts sharply with the parched brown trees and cacti of surrounding mountains.

“We wanted to build a very different plan from Cancun. The government thinks the very big resort is gone forever,” said Juan Maurer, a local developer.

Some travel books are not as sure and urge tourists to visit Huatulco before an onslaught of new tourism projects brings noise and crowds. Ironically, an economic slump that has frozen construction in the area may preserve Huatulco’s beauty a few more years from the bulldozer and buzz saw.