Costa Ballena occupies the former large agricultural compound “La Ballena”, on the municipalities of Rota (some 300 Hectares) and Chipiona (close to 100 hectares), in the Cadiz province.

In 1985 the Andalusia government enacts the “Tourism Plan for the Cadiz Bay- Guadalquivir river area”, in the wider framework of the Action Programme for the Andalusia Littoral. The Public Land Company of Andalusia (EPSA) receives the order to develop the urban planning project, with a FEDER European financial aid. Most of the original land owners participate in the management. The Plan Parcial de Ordenación del Área de la Ballena de Rota is finally enacted as of may 1990. The Junta de Compensación (an association of landowners that share the costs and benefits of the operation) is constituted in 2003 and dissolved in 2007, being substituted by an Urban Maintenance Entity (that exerts the road and infraestructure conservation functions usually attributed to the municipalities)

The project’s layout is arranged around golf courses, with a combination of individual and collective dwellings with a clear tourism orientation, and the ancillary presence of hotels and services.