For the fourth time, the real estate company will try to destroy Panul
The amendment to La Florida's Zoning Plan for the precordillera — which residents have been demanding for five years — will not be in force in time, and the real estate company will have no obstacles to requesting new construction permits.
This January 27 marks one year since more than 20,000 residents voted to definitively protect Bosque Panul. The municipality was pressured to hold this citizen consultation, following the historical demands of Red por la Defensa de la Precordillera.
Indeed, La Florida's mayor Rodolfo Carter called for this consultation after the community managed to prevent the company from obtaining environmental permits for its project, which included the construction of more than 1,300 housing units.
Despite the commitment to prevent the felling of Bosque El Panul, there has been no progress in its protection over the past year.
THE STALLED PRC AMENDMENT
Municipal authorities have repeatedly delayed the start of the Municipal Zoning Plan (PRC) amendment. This requires a preliminary study to establish the geographic risks in the area — such as flooding and landslides — and to also formally recognize areas of natural value, such as the native forest of litre trees, quillayes, hawthorns, and guayacanes that the real estate company intends to raze.
The negligence with which the authorities have approached this process becomes even more serious considering that in October 2013 the construction permit freeze decreed by the municipality expires (which can last a maximum of one year). From that date the path will be clear for a new real estate project to be submitted.
WHILE THE MUNICIPALITY SLEEPS, THE CONSTRUCTION COMPANIES DO NOT REST
Faced with this unprotected scenario, real estate company Gesterra is preparing a new project to build in Bosque El Panul, now with the advice of pro-investment professionals, seeking technical background in favor of the city's expansion over the precordillera. This would allow them to obtain the necessary permits from the Environmental Assessment Service (SEA) and, at the same time, counter the arguments of a community of residents that is increasingly informed, organized, and aware of its bond with the territory.
This makes the real estate company's strategy clear: convincing authorities and public opinion that Panul has no environmental value for the city, and that this ecosystem can be destroyed to install houses and buildings in an "environmentally friendly" way. In the same vein are the pretensions of La Florida's mayor, who has maintained that the only measure that can be taken is to reduce the number of housing units to be built in the precordillera.
THE REAL ESTATE THREAT AND COMMUNITY ORGANIZATION COMPETE FOR THE TERRITORY
The planning of Santiago, which for decades was confined to the needs of the real estate market, today comes alive as an essential right — one needed to create a world in which the good life is a supreme value. Today citizens organize to decide what city they want to live in, despite their systematic exclusion from urban policy.
Every day more people join the task of reclaiming their neighborhoods. The territory — understood as the space that shelters us — provides us with the means to stay alive, but above all, to live with dignity. In this new idea of city, body and nature maintain a harmonious and inseparable relationship: decisions that affect the territory have a direct impact on our health and quality of life.
It is important that there be community control of the space we inhabit, and that is why we demand real participation in the current Zoning Plan amendment — participation that has been denied to us since the moment the mayor handed the process over to the Regional Ministry of Housing, citing a supposed lack of resources.
TERRITORIAL EXPRESSION IS THE ONLY TOOL
Red por la Defensa de la Precordillera calls on residents and social organizations to participate in the Carnival March in defense of Bosque Panul, on Sunday, January 27 at 5 p.m., departing from Metro Trinidad and ending at a stage on Calle Cabildo, where musicians and bands will be performing.
Red por la Defensa de la Precordillera www.redprecordillera.cl La Florida, January 2013.
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