The Zoning Plan that will destroy the precordillera of La Florida
-Amendment No. 15 to the Municipal Zoning Plan (PRC) seeks to destroy the little native vegetation that remains in the urban area of the municipality, once again putting Bosque Panul at risk.
-Mayor Rodolfo Carter will authorize real estate projects in high-risk areas of high environmental value, despite having stated the opposite some years ago, following the damning conclusions of the risk study commissioned by the Municipality itself.
According to the municipality, the justification for this PRC change would be "real estate pressure in the inner neighborhoods of the municipality, (...) and the risks associated with the abandonment of certain areas of the pre-cordillera."
The stated goal is to "provide urban conditions suited to the existing environment in a pre-cordillera area; make use of public infrastructure investment, and attract private investment to enable urban and economic development of the municipality."
The proposed PRC, which is overtly neoliberal in character, seeks to destroy the ecosystem that survives in the precordillera, benefiting real estate developers by providing them with better conditions to urbanize their properties, increasing height and density of construction — which will translate into thousands of people moving there, amid existing risks from landslides, flooding, and traffic congestion. These areas are abandoned because the Municipality has not wanted to take responsibility for them — by creating green spaces or supporting the creation of a National Park for the entire precordillera and Andes range of Santiago.
Furthermore, let us recall that this proposal contradicts the public consultation held in January 2012 (where the option to protect Bosque Panul and the precordillera of La Florida won), and is also contrary to the results of the Risk Study (2014) commissioned by the Municipality itself, following social pressure to protect this ecosystem.
At that time, Mayor Rodolfo Carter stated that "This study is a clear, compelling, and definitive signal that construction cannot continue toward the precordillera. And regarding the neighbors who already live there, we will have to learn to coexist with a risk zone," and also said that there are "between 8,000 to 10,000 people who live in these areas. La Florida has a significant population in these places (precordillera), although fewer than the number of inhabitants in Peñalolén, La Reina, and Las Condes. We have to take responsibility for our own reality." For this reason, he said "we are going to proceed to modify the Zoning Plan, to prevent further construction in the precordillera".
If this amendment is approved, it would represent a major setback for the precordillera and the city of Santiago. Moreover, the process has been entirely closed off, and the municipality has refused to provide information about it. But the community had already warned about this months ago.
We demand that the mayor and the municipal council reject this PRC. Political lies and deception are also a form of violence, especially when they seek to build homes that are death traps in the medium term.
Red por la Defensa de la Precordillera, March 2020.
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.