The Arrecife Plenary approved unanimously this Tuesday an initiative of Vecinos Unidos to give a solution to the houses that it considers "excluded" from the General Plan. The councilor Andrés Medina, who accessed the Consistory under the acronym of Somos Lanzarote, had presented that motion in February, although then it was tabled. Already in the plenary of this Tuesday, Medina affirms that his proposal ended up becoming the first point that was debated, before the presence of several residents of those areas who came with banners to protest their situation.
The motion includes, in the first place, that before the initial approval of the Plan "the Plenary and therefore the residents are informed of the situation in which these areas are", in which Vecinos Unidos includes the Camino de Güime, the houses of the streets Bilbao and San Sebastián of the neighborhood of Tenorio, the Disseminated of Argana Alta and the streets Guipúzcoa, Rioja, Álava and Vitoria of the neighborhood of Altavista.
In addition, the initiative asks to "demand Gesplan to correct the problems detected in the areas mentioned above; and that these corrections be incorporated into the Plan document, before submitting it to a new initial approval and a new public information, in order to avoid problems that have easy solution". Finally, "to resolve the situation of the consolidated housing areas that are outside the General Plan", this already approved initiative proposed "that the Plenary adopt the agreement to address the Cabildo to promote a specific modification of the Island Plan of Territorial Planning, to give legal coverage to these homes in the shortest possible time, and without waiting for a new Island Plan".
Vecinos Unidos concluded the text stating that it will make an "exhaustive follow-up" so that this "commitment" is fulfilled, and thus avoid having to challenge the Plan, something that, according to the formation this week, the residents are willing to do if their homes are not incorporated into the document.
Reports that will "dismantle the Plan's chiringuito"
According to Vecinos Unidos, the approval of this initiative was not without tension. The organization has denounced that the mayor José Montelongo "despised" one of the residents who came to protest at the Plenary and that "only wanted to ask for an appointment to listen to the demands of the residents".
That motion, "was going to be addressed in point number 22 of the session", narrates Vecinos Unidos, which adds that "the presence in the hall of about 60 residents of the areas of houses excluded from the new General Plan" and that "contempt" of the mayor towards this resident "precipitated the events". "The mayor, given the neighborhood pressure, was forced to take our initiative to the first point of the session".
Thus, they point out that the councilor Andrés Medina opened the debate and reproached the mayor for that "lack of respect" to "a resident who only wanted to talk to him". He then explained "the reality of the consolidated housing areas, threatened with being excluded, once again, from the municipal planning". Medina also stressed that some of these houses have been "built for up to 60 years" and that there are residents who "pay urban contributions and the IBI since 1978". The formation also highlights that these are houses that "appear as urban areas in the PIOT plans of several years ago, and now it turns out that they are rustic soils; and endless irregularities". Medina, explains the statement, also told the Government group that his formation has "a Legal and an urban planning report that will dismantle the entire chiringuito of the supplementary General Plan".
The formation has also criticized the attitude of the city's Councilor for Urban Planning, Samuel Martín, who they say called the presence of the residents in the Plenary a "circus". For Vecinos Unidos, their "excuses, not arguments" were "very offensive".
