The Deputy Mayor of Arrecife, José Montelongo, defended this Wednesday the new suspension of demolition licenses for historic buildings until the new catalog, already drafted, is included in the document of the Supplementary General Plan, which is being drafted by Gesplán, and whose initial approval is expected for April. "The City Council understands that these houses have values that must be protected and we are going to continue protecting them for four more months," Montelongo explained on Radio Lanzarote-Onda Cero.
The houses had a demolition permit from 2005 and in August the suspension of licenses was already decreed for six months. "We continue to maintain the protection of these houses and all those that are cataloged," he insisted, while highlighting a legislative decree, which says that only "demolition licenses may be granted for non-cataloged, unprotected buildings that are not subject to a procedure aimed at their cataloging or integral protection".
The City Council has decided to suspend these licenses for a period of four months due to the delay of the General Plan. "The legal service of the City Council has seen this possibility of continuing to protect the houses and that is the option we have chosen," he defended.
Corrected inaccuracies
The Deputy Mayor understands that it is "necessary" that these houses, "the few that remain", continue to be protected, although he is also aware that the Municipal Architectural Catalog, annulled by the Supreme Court, contained "some inaccuracies". However, he assures that in the new document they will be "totally corrected".
"The owners of the houses know what can be done, such as giving them other uses or expanding in height while protecting the facades," he said. These are the parameters that the City Council has given to Gesplán to transfer it to the General Plan, which will have to be made public so that citizens can present allegations.
Montelongo has assured that he has "not stopped demanding Gesplán" to finalize this Supplementary General Plan of Arrecife and, precisely, last week he held a meeting in Las Palmas with the mayor, Manolo Fajardo Feo, the Minister of Territorial Policy, Domingo Berriel, and the Deputy Minister Mario Pérez, to "ask them for the deadlines for that Plan to go to its initial approval".
