Environmentalists Terraferida are demanding that Deya town hall approves a suspension of building licences in order to avoid more developments like Petit Deià. The organisation notes that the administration has publicly expressed its intention to revise urban planning regulations, but argues that without a suspension there will be a flood of requests for licences.
Terraferida say that Deya has experienced excessive development in recent years and that one of the main reasons has been the conversion of "hundreds of properties" into tourist establishments. Residents, Terraferida add, have been protesting against this process because the village is becoming more and more developed, while at the same time people are being driven out.
The environmentalists point out that Deya has more developable land per resident than any other municipality in the Tramuntana Mountains. This is, they say, "exorbitant" as it equates to 142% of the current population of 617.
In 2019, Deya had 1,138 legal tourist places, 458 of which were in hotels. This number of places is getting on for double the resident population. Despite this, the Council of Majorca did not consider Deya to have been "saturated" when it conducted its zoning for tourist accommodation. Terraferida draw attention to Airbnb alone offering 618 places - one more than the number of residents.