Panul under threat: A new setback for the Municipal Zoning Plan
On Wednesday, October 31, we attended the Municipal Council session, where a vote was held on approving 30 million pesos for the Risk and Environmental Protection Study (ERPA).
As some will recall, the municipality of La Florida decided to conduct the Risk and Environmental Protection Study (ERPA) in order to amend the Municipal Zoning Plan (PRC) and protect Panul. The study would essentially determine where risk areas exist (flooding, mass removal, landslides, etc.) and where areas of high environmental value are located (native forest, biodiversity, protected species, etc.). This background information is essential to support an amendment to the Zoning Plan, thereby preventing real estate construction and the destruction of our precordillera, which current municipal regulations currently permit.
In August 2011, Red por la Defensa de la Precordillera, together with the municipality, established a working group composed of the Urban Planning Advisory Office and Red members, to develop the "tender specifications"1 that would meet community expectations and needs.
Two months earlier, in June 2011, the Municipal Council unanimously approved funds for the Risk and Environmental Protection Study (ERPA). However, shortly afterward and without consulting the Council or the Urban Planning Advisory Office, La Florida's mayor, Rodolfo Carter, requested funding from the Regional Ministry of Housing and Urban Development (SEREMI), Marisol Rojas, to carry out the same study.
Red denounced the SEREMI's involvement at the time, as the year before Marisol Rojas had strongly pressured the municipality to approve the real estate preliminary project. This approval was formalized on June 30, 2011 — that is, after three years of resistance from the Municipal Works Directorate, and three days after Carter assumed the role of mayor appointed by the Municipal Council.
Given this scenario, we remained vigilant throughout the amendment process and demanded that the municipality incorporate the specifications we had jointly developed. While this did occur, the municipality and the SEREMI of Housing and Urban Development agreed to restrict the study area, excluding the zone between the San Carlos and Las Perdices canals (an area affected by the 1993 landslide). Furthermore, the SEREMI decided to combine two studies from different municipalities — La Florida and Vitacura — offering 150 million pesos. No company was willing to take on an ERPA for two different municipalities, so the tender was declared void and the amendment to the Municipal Zoning Plan (PRC) was delayed even further.
As a result, the SEREMI decided to separate the two studies and conduct one solely for La Florida, requesting 30 million pesos from the municipality — which, added to the SEREMI's 70 million peso contribution, made the ERPA tender more attractive.
On October 31 of this year, about 15 Red members attended the Municipal Council session, where the approval of the 30 million pesos requested by the SEREMI was being voted on. Upon arriving at the chamber, Rodolfo Carter, mayor of La Florida, had drastically reduced the number of attendees to the council, limiting it to 26 people. As a result, only seven of us were allowed in. When the session began discussing the ERPA, we requested the floor, to which Carter flatly responded: "No, I will not give you the floor." We requested it again, and the answer was the same. We looked at each other and immediately decided to leave the council chamber.
As Red, we do not want a conflict with the municipality, as we understand that only by coordinating the various social actors (of which the municipality is a fundamental one) will we be able to defend and recover Bosque Panul and the precordillera. This is especially relevant given that the mayor is the highest representative of the local community, and urban planning is one of his most important responsibilities.
Our attendance at the Municipal Council was aimed at proposing improvements to the tender specifications that would help reduce the excessive timelines proposed by the SEREMI and increase municipal oversight of the process, since the previous specifications granted greater decision-making powers to the SEREMI2. We knew the municipality would approve the funding, and indeed it did.
On several occasions we have denounced the valuable time wasted throughout this process. Let us recall that the municipality of La Florida formally committed to amending the Municipal Zoning Plan (PRC) in January 2008, and a second time in May 2011.
According to the timeline developed by the working group between Red and the Urban Planning Advisory Office, the tender was to be issued in January 2012, meaning the ERPA would be ready by the end of this year at the latest (the preparation of an ERPA can take between 6 months and a year, depending on the deadlines set and the speed at which the involved agencies act). With the SEREMI's involvement, the entire process was delayed — further compounded by the failed previous tender. Moreover, the Council approved the 30 million pesos but conditioned the disbursement on 2013, meaning the start of the ERPA will begin one year later than agreed with the municipality.
We have thoroughly studied this process and are firmly convinced that, if there is political will, the Zoning Plan could perfectly well be amended by the end of 2013. To achieve this, the timeline should be: January–February 2013, tender and award; March–September, ERPA launch and delivery; October–December, analysis, proposal, and final amendment.
We want to contribute to this process by preventing unnecessary delays that could result in a Municipal Zoning Plan (PRC) being ready only in 2015 — which would be of absolutely no use in protecting and defending Bosque Panul from the current real estate threat. It is important to keep in mind that the construction permit freeze expires in October 2013. After that date, the real estate company will be able to submit a new mega-project under the current PRC, which permits the destruction of the precordillera ecosystems.
We call on everyone to stay alert and to join the community park project that Red is developing. The only way to protect Panul is to make it truly ours — in the deepest sense of the word — by developing a park proposal that meets the needs of all. To this end, we consider it non-negotiable that we ourselves manage the park we want.
We once again ask the municipality to allow genuine civic participation throughout this process. Municipal authorities must remember that it was the organized community that — momentarily — stopped the destruction of Panul. We demand respect for our work, but above all, respect for municipal sovereignty and autonomy.
1 The specifications are the requirements imposed on private contractors to carry out the Risk and Environmental Protection Study (ERPA). 2 Amending a Municipal Zoning Plan (PRC) is an exclusive power of the Municipality, regardless of whether it receives support from another State body for funding.
Red por la Defensa de la Precordillera, November 2012.
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