The Limited Times

Now you can see non-English news...

UNAM wins a legal battle against a luxury residential development in Mexico City

2022-05-27T17:31:06.691Z


The Supreme Court has granted an injunction to the university center after ruling that the construction of the housing complex will affect the landscape of the Ciudad Universitaria campus, declared a Cultural Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO


The rectory of the National Autonomous University of Mexico, in a file image from 2021. Andrea Murcia (Cuartoscuro)

The Supreme Court of Justice has ordered a definitive halt to the works on the Be Grand Universidad real estate development.

The works had been on hold since February 2018 due to a lawsuit filed by the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) against the housing megaproject of more than 600 homes that, according to the largest university in Latin America, would affect the urban landscape. from the campus of Ciudad Universitario, declared Cultural Patrimony of Humanity by UNESCO.

After extensive litigation in court for more than four years, the magistrates have agreed with the university on Thursday.

Following the ruling, the company declined to comment.

The Chamber unanimously confirmed the protection that a federal judge granted to UNAM in September 2019. The compelling reason is that the university campus has been inscribed, since 2007, on the UNESCO World Heritage list.

The draft ruling, presented by Minister Javier Laynez Potisek, indicates that the property that Be Grand intends to build, designed for luxury apartments, “is located in a buffer zone or protected area, derived from the registration of the Ciudad Universitaria Campus on the World Heritage list, which requires that authorized constructions in that area be limited to two levels, in order to conserve and protect the aforementioned architectural complex, which is based on obvious reasons of public interest.”

Far from the requirements cited by UNESCO, the complex designed by Be Grand contemplated building three towers in that space adjacent to Ciudad Universitaria: two with 23 levels and another with 27 levels to accommodate more than 600 homes in an area of ​​115,000 meters squares.

The project, located at 75 Copilco Avenue, in the Coyoacán mayor's office, south of Mexico City, also promised investors and future tenants the construction of self-service stores, a gym, a cafeteria, an event hall, a business center, banks, cinema and enough space for cars with at least seven basement parking lots.

Computerized illustration of the residential building planned for Copilco, in the southern zone of Mexico City.BeGrand

Be Grand, a firm that promotes itself as an expert in the development and marketing of high-quality real estate projects in exclusive areas in Mexico with more than 18 years of experience, assured the magistrates that the buffer zones are only suggestions, not binding mandates whose Non-compliance generates any sanction, and rejected that its property in Copilco is clearly included in said zones.

The company even argued that imposing restrictions on the use of its land amounted to expropriation.

However, the Court replied to the company's argument: "Considering that the buffer zones only constitute recommendations, would imply going against the object and purpose of the Convention for the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage, which obliges the Mexican State to identify , protect, conserve, rehabilitate and transmit to future generations the cultural heritage located in its territory, since these areas are a protection mechanism that guarantees the long-term safeguarding of the declared World Heritage property.

The Supreme Court specified that the property is not being expropriated, which will continue to be the property of Be Grand, but rather that it will be subject to the limit of two-story buildings and all the requirements implied by the UNESCO declaration.

Due to the legal battle that paralyzed the real estate complex, the company, which received with great fanfare the authorizations to start construction in 2016, had to stop two years later due to the protection presented by the UNAM.

Now, on the ground there is little excavation and maintenance work.

In its 2021 annual report, the company stated that since the development was at an early stage, no line of credit has been arranged and "the investment that the company has allocated is not significant."

subscribe here

to the

newsletter

of EL PAÍS México and receive all the informative keys of the current affairs of this country

Source: elparis

All news articles on 2022-05-27

You may like

News/Politics 2024-03-14T11:06:16.757Z
News/Politics 2024-03-10T10:08:43.702Z

Trends 24h

News/Politics 2024-03-28T06:04:53.137Z

Latest

© Communities 2019 - Privacy

The information on this site is from external sources that are not under our control.
The inclusion of any links does not necessarily imply a recommendation or endorse the views expressed within them.