SOCIALISTS PRESS CANARIES GOVERNMENT TO SUSPEND PLANNING LAW

Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Thursday January 21 2010

THE SOCIALIST Party urged the Canarian government to suspend Santa Cruz council's controversial Plan General de Ordenación on Thursday.

by JAMES TWEEDIE

The PSOE's parliamentary group registered a Non-Legislative Proposal (PNL) calling on regional planning and environment commission COTMAC to suspend the implementation of the by-law.

Residents raised objections to the PGO in November – one month after the close of the council's consultation period – when they discovered that some 30,000 existing properties had been declared as fuera de ordenación – outside of planning permission – under the new law.

The PSOE warned that the PGO would increase the value of some properties at the expense of thousands of others.

Their proposal also called for regional legislation to be amended to lift the limit on urban density in existing towns and to restrict the placing of properties outside the law.

PSOE parliamentary spokesman Santiago Pérez argued that the present legislation was being used arbitrarily against residents.

He said: "These limits must be adapted to the urban reality of the archipelago and, especially, its metropolitan areas."

The by-law gained provisional approval from the Canarian Coalition (CC) - Popular Party (PP) coalition-held Santa Cruz council on January 4, despite the presence of thousands of protesters outside the five-hour meeting and belated opposition from opposition PSOE councillors.

On January 9 some 15,000 residents marched through the city to protest against the law.

Santa Cruz council claims that the plan is intended to regulate population density in the regional capital by regulating the height of buildings.

But protest organisers the Assembly for Tenerife (AxT) coalition and neighbourhood groups or 'platforms' say that the retrospective removal of planning permission will reduce the market value of buildings and restrict the owner's property rights.

They accuse councillors of serving only the interests of their friends and relations in the property business.

The PGO must now be approved or rejected by COTMAC.

The PP parliamentary group filed its own PNL on Wednesday, asking the Canarian government to study the possibility of a "spread" or "change" in population densities per hectare so that housing outside the new PGO would pass into the common management system.

But Mr Pérez said: "It is surprising that the PP, which voted for the provisional adoption of PGO, now try to correct the legal boundaries for urban land and its management.”

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