Mazatlán, Sinaloa, Neighbors support and applaud the decision of Mayor Luis Guillermo Benítez Torres:
it is important that real estate developers know that they will respect the law”
Accustomed to doing their will under the tricky argument of attracting investment and generating employment, some real estate developers appropriated the urban progress of the city without caring about sustainability and much less the opinion of the residents who have repeatedly denounced that “progress at any price is not welcome in Mazatlan.”
Recently the developer Carlos Rivera Vega, grandson of the respectable Joaquín Vega, manager and partner of the Cervecería del Pacífico, accused the municipal president Benítez Torres of denying him the permit to demolish the farm located on the corner of Sixto Osuna and Paseo Olas Altas streets. , in the current Puerto Viejo restaurant, where he insists on building a 12-story tower on a plot of less than 400 square meters, which the neighbors have opposed since 2017 when they gathered more than 27 thousand signatures that supported the opposition to so criticized project that violates federal, state and municipal regulations and legal provisions, as denounced by the representatives of the neighbors Alfredo Gómez Rubio, Anton Jonsson and Mario Martini, who applauded Benítez Torres’ decision by saying that “it is important that real estate developers respect the law.”
During 2017 and 2018, Rivera Vega used his political and social relations to overcome citizen resistance and put pressure on the then municipal president Fernando Pucheta Sánchez – who ordered the review of the project and permits that PAN member Carlos Felton González suspiciously authorized.in 2016- and Joel Boucieguez who, faced with social pressure, ordered the then director of Municipal Planning for Sustainable Development, architect Raymundo Martínez, to carry out another in-depth review of the project and the possible violations of legal provisions that protect the Historic Center, such as the Partial Plan of the Municipal Planning Institute -which establishes the maximum heights in the area- and the regulations of the National Institute of Anthropology and History regarding the protection of areas of historical monuments and cultural heritage. During these last two years, the governor of the state, Quirino Ordaz Coppel, remained on the sidelines.
In November 2018, the neighborhood representatives met with the municipal president Benítez Torres and the director of Sustainable Development Planning, architect Victor Sainz Sánchez, who recognized that it was impossible to build a tower in such a small space, in addition to violating several legal provisions. , as has been legally supported by the Alvarez & Asociados Law Firm, which represents the residents. In subsequent meetings with the chemist, the neighbors denounced that the close relationship between their Planning Director and the project’s architects complicated the issue in terms of legality, transparency and political impact, in the event that the permit was finally granted.
In this context, Benítez Torres responded directly to businessman Carlos Rivera Vega:
We are not going to allow ourselves to be blackmailed by politicians, businessmen or the media. It seems that it has not been made clear to them that we are going to comply with the Law and that we will not accept blackmail or pressure of that kind.”
Benítez Torres confirmed that he will not allow the construction of a tower with even 6 levels because the Partial Plan of the Historic Center-Implan prohibits it and added that the land use opinion was erroneously issued on Paseo Olas Altas, when the documentation accredits the official address on Sixto Osuna street.
Nor does it have the feasibility of the Ministry of Health, which they subsequently obtained on November 16, 2018…, and they were allowed to pay when legally they should not do so.
He added that the file is in the Directorate of Sustainable Development Planning, but he announced that they will deny the permit until the project is adjusted to the Partial Plan of the Historic Center.
The Chemist of old.
- Brief history
Paralelo 23 has documented the infinity of irregularities that the project has that comes from the administration of PAN member Felton González, who approved it irregularly, in addition to the fact that many of the requirements have already expired.
In a meeting with President Benítez Torres -held in the presidential office on November 7, 2018-, the presidents of the Board of Trustees of the Historic Center and the civil association Todos Somos Sinaloa Alfredo Gómez Rubio and Mario Martini, respectively, as well as Anton Jonson, representative of the directly affected neighbors, and of the lawyer Daniel Tenorio, legal representative of the citizens, the director of Planning for Sustainable Development of Mazatlán and former president of the College of Architects of Mazatlán, architect Víctor Sainz Sánchez, agreed that “the size of the land in Sixto Osuna and Olas Altas –which is less than 400 square meters- it does not allow the construction of a tower”.
The neighbors presented arguments and legal reasons and asked the chemist Benítez not to allow this atrocity, because “if he did, it would open a gap for the construction of condominium towers in Olas Altas when our Historic Center is protected and it would affect the historical attractiveness of the area in the medium and long term”, stated Gómez Rubio.
For his part, the director of the Israel Victoria Municipal Planning Institute has publicly maintained that the project “should not exceed 6 levels”, which the residents are willing to support as long as the height of the building is not greater than 19 meters from Hotel Belmar in its new part.
In addition to the legal protections of the area, a fundamental point to deny the construction permit is the single-family dimension of the land – less than 400 square meters – which does not correspond to the height requested by the developers, known as the maximum coefficient of displacement (COS). ) which is 0.8%.
It was precisely the PAN member Carlos Felton González who, a few months before handing over the municipal presidency of Mazatlan, granted a first permit to the Rivega company to build a 12-story tower without neighborhood approval and the legal and technical support of the Institute’s expert architects. National Union of Anthropology and History based in Mazatlan nor the Internal Board of INAH-Sinaloa or the National Union of Expert Architects who have reiterated that the delegate Francisco Ríos Avendaño never took them into account to authorize the opinion of the project and the corresponding plans, which caused a series of complaints of corruption that until now have not been addressed by the general director of the institute, architect Diego Prieto. In the absence of a response,
At the meeting on November 7, the residents of the Olas Altas neighborhood, to which the municipal president is a frequent visitor, delivered a letter that summarizes their request to avoid destroying one of the greatest tourist attractions that Mazatlán has: the architectural value, cultural and historical center of the city.
Mazatlan, Sinaloa November 7, 2018.
Luis Guillermo Benitez Torres.
Municipal President of Mazatlan.
Present.
I greet you affectionately and in the most respectful way we ask for your support regarding the construction of a Tower that is intended to be carried out on Calle Sixto Osuna corner with Paseo Olas Altas.
IMPLAN, generated a table in which it is allowed to build up to 60 meters in height on the entire sea front in Mazatlan.
By omission it did not clarify that the zone protected by the decree of the Official Gazette of the Federation, of March 12, 2001, excluded allowing to build those heights in the Protected Zone of Historical Monuments, which includes the perimeter from Calle Pedregoso (1 block above de Ángel Flores), going through all of Olas Altas to the intersection of Covarrubias Street behind the Josefa Ortiz de Domínguez school. This was clarified by the former Director of IMPLAN, but it has not been corrected in the Partial Plan of the Historic Center.
That it is important that real estate developers know and respect this restriction so as not to incur in projects that break these laws.
Regardless (in this case) of the construction coefficient the terrain in question does not give the measurements for the planned heights.
Allowing this would open a gap for the construction of Torres en Olas Altas when our Historic Center has been protected and would affect the attractiveness of the area in the medium and long term.
Hotel Freeman and the Federal Judicial Power building were built before the Zone was protected by the Federal Law of Historical Monuments, which is above any Municipal Plan.
Requesting your attention to this, we thank you and we consider it important to define a criterion on this area.
Respectfully
Alfredo Gomez Rubio Lemmen Meyer
President
CcpC Victor Sainz Sanchez. Director of Sustainable Urban Development Planning. H. City Council of Mazatlan, Director of Planning Víctor Sainz agrees that the size of the land does not allow a tower in Olas Altas
On December 12, 2018, the director of IMPLAN-Mazatlán, Israel Victoria, stated that
the Carlos Rivera Tower should not be higher than 6 floors”
And the neighbors again demanded that INAH show the certification of the expert architects who authorized the 12-story tower.
On July 22, 2022, the director of Sustainable Development Planning, architect Jorge Estavillo Kelly, responded to the request for information from the neighbors that the developer Carlos Rivera Vega:
If you have a demolition license number 15 14 68 dated July 29, 2022 and if you have a construction license number 13 34 43 that appears with a file date of April 25, 2017, this is because in that date was requested. However, the license was not issued because the owner filed an annulment trial through which it forced the Sustainable Urban Development Planning Directorate to issue the license on January 18, 2021, once the Contentious Court of Administrative Justice ordered to the Directorate that (immediately) the construction license be issued”.
The transformation from that Chemist to today’s was brutal.
Source: paralelo-23.com
