This Wednesday, the municipality decides the future of Bosque Panul
The mayor's Zoning Plan proposal insists on dividing and destroying the native forest, breaking the commitment he made following the 2012 public consultation.
This Wednesday, June 25, at 9 a.m., at La Florida's cultural center, the municipal council will vote on Mayor Rodolfo Carter's Zoning Plan proposal for the precordillera. It aims to subdivide the territory into one-hectare plots and allow the construction of urban facilities for commerce and private recreation.
If Carter's proposal were to pass, gyms, sports courts, swimming pools, shops, and cafés could be built — all with their respective streets, parking facilities, electrical wiring, and sewage systems. These real estate projects would face no legal obstacle to destroying the vital areas of the native forest, which would shatter the residents' dream of converting Panul into a Community Park for the polluted city of Santiago.
Carter's proposal is rejected by various social organizations in La Florida, as it is the product of a tainted and opaque process that closed the door to community participation. One of the irregularities committed by the municipality was issuing direct instructions to the professional responsible for conducting the technical studies (geographer Francisco Ferrando) not to consider the environmental value of the native forest, but to focus exclusively on determining whether there is a risk of landslides and flooding in the area. As a result, the construction of housing will be restricted, but the path will be cleared for other equally destructive projects.
Given the complex environmental situation in our district, we urgently call on all social and environmental organizations in La Florida to mobilize and build a common effort to halt the atrocious municipal actions against our environment — such as the massacre of native trees we have witnessed in our neighborhoods, the dramatic reduction of green areas, and the continued privatization of common spaces, in a district that has been battered for decades by urban planning handed over to the real estate market and bad governance.
We once again urge the government authorities to support residents in their demand that Panul must be officially expropriated and protected. To residents we say: the hardest task, but the only one worth undertaking, is to begin working today to care for our native forest and achieve environmental justice with our own hands — because no one is going to hand us anything, because the community park is us.
NO MORE PROFIT FROM OUR TERRITORY
WE DEMAND EXPROPRIATION OF PANUL NOW
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