CONFIRMED: Real estate company GESTERRA submitted project to urbanize Bosque Panul
-According to documents from the Dirección de Obras, the company submitted a project in January of this year seeking to subdivide Fundo Panul into several lots, in order to extend streets such as Av. Central and Rojas Magallanes toward the mountains, among other works.
-This information was deemed "false" by La Florida mayor Rodolfo Carter in the preceding days, but the evidence found confirms the citizens' complaint, making it imperative to change the current Zoning Plan to definitively protect Bosque Panul.
The urbanization project by GESTERRA (the real estate arm of the Navarrete Rolando family, OXIQUIM) was submitted to the Dirección de Obras of the Municipality of La Florida on January 13, and seeks to subdivide Fundo Panul and its native forest into at least 7 large lots, in order to build streets such as Av. Central and Rojas Magallanes. This situation would be similar to what GESTERRA attempted years ago with its 1,302-unit housing project, which was environmentally rejected in 2012.
La Florida mayor Rodolfo Carter had dismissed the complaint filed by the Red Precordillera a few days earlier, labeling it "false." But the fact is that the real estate company did indeed submit an urbanization project, made possible by the current Zoning Plan.
This Zoning Plan, approved by the Carter administration in 2015 with the municipal council, was promoted as the "salvation of Panul", and while it did restrict housing construction in part of the forest, it allowed the subdivision into one-hectare parcels, along with other projects that equally endangered the ecosystem (such as the one now submitted by the real estate company) — a fact that was reported at the time, and for which the community received harsh accusations from Carter, including claims that they "needed an enemy in order to exist."
Just recently, in the March 15 press release, the mayoral candidate accused the citizens' organization of lying and of wanting to create a conflict with him ahead of the upcoming elections. But given the evidence presented, the right question would be: why did the real estate company submit this project three months before the elections? It certainly seeks to pressure whoever becomes mayor, all while availing itself of the Zoning Plan that supposedly saved Panul. So who is lying?
But Bosque Panul is still alive, and the Navarrete family will not succeed in cutting it down. We ask Rodolfo Carter (or whichever mayor is elected) that, together with the municipal council, they reject the real estate company's project and promptly modify the current Zoning Plan to GENUINELY PROTECT BOSQUE PANUL through the creation of a Public Park. Time is running out, especially because the plan made by Carter and the council allows this subdivision.
Let us defend Chile's environmental heritage TODAY. That is all that matters to us.
Red por la Defensa de la Precordillera March 26, 2021
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