Silvia Gomez
11/25/2020 6:00 AM
Clarín.com
Cities
Updated 11/25/2020 6:00 AM
Friday's will be a historic public hearing in the Buenos Aires Legislature.
More than
7,000 people,
including residents, neighbors and non-governmental organizations are already registered to participate in a version different from the classic face-to-face audience.
The coronavirus quarantine imposed a virtual modality that encouraged citizen participation.
But the call also responds to the importance of this law for the future of the City: it is the project promoted by the Executive to modify the existing regulations on
the land that today is occupied by the Costa Salguero and Punta Carrasco complexes.
With the modification of the Urban Planning Code, the Executive intends to allow the
construction of homes and offices in front of the Río de la Plata
.
In addition, it promotes the construction of a
park that has public access
.
Unlike what happens in Puerto Madero, here the proximity to Jorge Newbery Airport prevents towers from being built;
buildings may not be more than 29 meters high.
In any case, it will be the formation of a new luxury neighborhood in a city -in a country- with a serious problem of housing deficit.
Costa Salguero has a total area of 135,000 square meters, and Punta Carrasco has 112,000 m2.
Today there is a convention center, restaurants, bowling alleys and other facilities in both buildings.
After 30 years,
the concessions expire at the end of next year and will not be renewed.
This project was already voted positively in October, in a first reading: 37 votes in favor (Vamos Juntos, UCR-Evolution y el Socialismo) and 23 against (Frente de Todos, Frente de Izquierda, GEN and Federal Consensus).
By modifying the code, it demands a
double reading
and a public hearing, which
is not binding
anyway
.
However, it raises an overview of the residents of the City.
And at least three legislators who are members of the Urban Planning Commission must be present.
In addition, a typographic version of what will be discussed at the hearing is produced.
The idea of transforming the area took its
first step in December
, when in the last session of the year the Legislature authorized the Executive to sell up to 35% of the surface of both complexes on the river, but use 65% for public space, which includes from green areas to the coastal strip and the opening of streets and sidewalks.
"The
sale of the riverside lands
is an act of urban injustice and it reveals to us, that is why we were one of the groups that made the situation visible. This massive inscription is gratifying. The neighbors" saw "the issue, I think a conscience was awakened. Now everyone knows what is being discussed and I think we are starting from another base. The legislators are going to have to respond to the requirements that the neighbors are going to make, "the architect Bárbara Rossen, who is a member of the" Collective of Architects in defense of public lands ".
There are 342 professionals who sent a letter to the president of the Commission, the ruling party Victoria Roldán Méndez, and to the rest of the legislators, requesting that the project be archived.
Environmental lawyer Enrique Viale compared the extraordinary value of a city's public lands with that of an open pit mine.
And he evaluated other implications, such as the real estate business: "A negotiation with public lands where, on the other hand, luxury homes will be built. That is to say that the properties become a commodity, a commodity. Who buys more $ 6,000 per square meter? "he wonders.
Another related issue is the abandonment of public lands by the State.
"It is a perverse view of the situation.
The government argues that the area is deteriorated
, as if they were not responsible for that. The neighbor is tired of the abandonment and often throws in the towel."
Finally, in a context of pandemic and climate change, Viale understands that opportunities to
expand the available green spaces
are lost
.
Buenos Aires has an average of
6 m2 of green spaces per inhabitant
, according to the latest available figures (2018), published by the City's Department of Statistics and Censuses;
the same meters as in 2006, according to the agency.
It is one of the large cities with the fewest meters per inhabitant: Madrid has 20, New York 22, Paris 13;
in South America, Bogotá has 17 m2 / hab, Curitiba 50, San Pablo 11.5;
in Argentina, Rosario has 10.4 m2 / hab.
national contest of ideas buenos aires and the river
The debate, on the other hand, will be marked by the legality in the origin of the sale of these lands;
a law that was previously voted on to the current one, in December 2019. Article 8 of the Constitution of the City says that the "spaces that are
part of the riverside environment are public and with free access and circulation
.
"
This situation is also reaffirmed by the PUA (Environmental Urban Plan), which in article 9, paragraph 4, establishes that "the properties of state domain that are deactivated on the banks must be destined for public use."
Faced with this circumstance, the City received
a setback in Justice.
At the end of October, Chamber II of the Chamber of Appeals in Contentious, Administrative and Tax (CAyT) Buenos Aires
suspended the sale of the lands
.
The City filed a motion for unconstitutionality, but it was rejected on Friday.
In Justice the debate continues in relation to legality;
But for the groups of neighbors who oppose the project, a process begins on Friday that implies making visible and making the legislators who demand the city they want to live listen to.
SC