Municipality of La Florida continues with its plan to urbanize Bosque Panul
-A couple of weeks ago, the Red por la Defensa de la Precordillera published the "2019 Real Estate Development Plan" prepared by the Municipality of La Florida, showing three real estate projects in the middle of the native Bosque El Panul, alongside dozens of projects spread throughout the municipality.
-This Plan was presented by the mayor of La Florida, Rodolfo Carter, during a forum held in Las Condes, to real estate companies with projects in the municipality.
-The information was denied by the Municipality, which accused the community organization of having "intentionally altered" the image. The municipality also stated that there were no "submitted or approved" projects, confusing public opinion and avoiding answering the serious complaint made by the neighbors.
A few weeks ago, the community organized in the Red por la Defensa de la Precordillera gained access to key information that demonstrated how the Municipality intends to continue negotiating with the last native forest within the urban limits of Santiago.
The municipality presented its "2019 Real Estate Development Plan" at a forum for companies in the sector, which clearly showed three projects within Bosque Panul — information that was analyzed and corroborated by expert professionals on the matter, both within the organization and external to it.
The suspended mayor Rodolfo Carter responded through various media outlets that there were no projects "submitted or approved" in Panul — something unrelated to the complaint, since the article does not speak of submitted or approved projects, but of a plan to approve them in the future. That is why the headline says "will authorize."
Furthermore, the mayor maintains that the information is false and that the image was intentionally altered, distancing himself from the map he himself presented to real estate investors. We challenge the mayor to make this information public and not rely solely on words or "fake news". If what the municipality says is true, let it demonstrate this in the appropriate courts.
Beyond how serious the urbanization of the last native forest within the urban limits of Santiago would be for all of Santiago's inhabitants, the Plan presented by the Municipality bears no relation to the reality of the municipality — which is already experiencing road collapse, has no green areas, no decent housing, and a quality of life that worsens day by day. Thus, the Plan does not only propose projects in Panul, but also in other parts of the precordillera, such as Macalto. This vast territory of 30 square kilometers is located in a large "risk zone" for the lives of its inhabitants, which was recognized by the municipality itself.
The denounced Plan also shows dozens of projects spread throughout the municipality, concentrated on Vicuña Mackenna 14 and on Tobalaba with Departamental — an area flooded by the last landslide of 1993.
We challenge the mayor and the Municipal Council to make this concerning information transparent, and to submit it to public consultation or a referendum, so that all of us La Florida residents can vote on the urban destiny of our municipality, since we are the ones who suffer the consequences of this irresponsible planning.
Red por la Defensa de la Precordillera
May 5, 2019
The content expressed in this article is the responsibility of its original authors and does not necessarily represent the views associated with the Panul Para Todos project.
The information archived in Archivo Panul was collected using automated tools, so there may be inconsistencies between what is presented here and the original link. You can visit the original link at the top of this article.