The Governing Board of the City Council of Arrecife has finally approved this Wednesday the license for the remodeling of the old Oriental hotel building, which implies the partial demolition of the property and had been on the table up to three previous occasions.
The vote took place with division within the government group, since the councilors of the PSOE and Nueva Canarias had requested that a condition be included, which has been rejected. Thus, the vote in favor of the Popular Party and the councilor of Somos Lanzarote, Eli Merino, has prevailed.
“Our vote, since the proposal did not pass, translates as an abstention”, specify from the PSOE, which explains that what they were asking to vote in favor was that the license not be effective until 15 days had passed since it was notified to the Cabildo. The objective, according to the NC councilor, was to suspend the start of the works during that period of time, so that the Island Corporation or the Government of the Canary Islands "had the possibility of adopting the measures they deem necessary".
In this regard, they emphasize that neither the Heritage area of the Cabildo nor the General Directorate of Heritage of the Government of the Canary Islands have spoken. In the case of the Island Corporation, it did issue a report more than two years ago raising objections to this intervention, but after appearing in this file it has not issued a new opinion and has only conveyed its objections “verbally”.
In addition, the councilors of the PSOE and NC emphasize that no technician from the City Council attended the Governing Board this Wednesday, despite the fact that they always attend when urban issues are addressed. In fact, this absence has “surprised” several of those present, who emphasize that in previous Boards they had “always” been there.
A property with values but not included in the Catalog
The controversy over this property arises because although Heritage warns that it does have values to protect, it was not included in the Arrecife Catalog. The municipal reports focus on the latter to report in favor, although the heritage Catalog of Arrecife has been pending updating since 2004.
This has been delaying the approval of this license, which a year ago was also left on the table at the Governing Board. And the same thing happened again two weeks ago, when the issue was resumed. Now, a new order has been added from the Contentious-Administrative Court Number 2 of Las Palmas, issued on July 30, which urged the Consistory to resolve the file. It thus estimated a new appeal from the property, which had already obtained a judgment in the same sense and turned to the Court again asking that the ruling be complied with.
However, both from the opposition and some councilors of the government group emphasize that this judicial resolution at no time said that the license had to be granted, only that a response should be given given the time elapsed, in whatever sense. And the request was registered more than four years ago, in 2017, through Juan Carlos González Berriel, representing Inmobiliaria Chimida S.L.
Finally, the votes of four of the seven councilors that are part of the Governing Board of Arrecife have ended up approving this permit this Friday, without including the condition requested by their government partners. The three councilors of the PP and the one from Somos Lanzarote voted in favor, whose vote has been decisive in undoing the ‘tie’ with the two councilors of the PSOE and the one from NC.
