The managing director of the public company Gestión y Planeamiento Territorial y Medioambiental (Gesplan), Rafael Castellano, handed over this Wednesday to the Councilor for Urban Planning of the Arrecife City Council, Pedro de Armas, the Special Plan for the Ordering of the Historic Center and Charco de San Ginés for its processing. The document commissioned by the capital corporation to this company aims to conserve and improve the urban landscape, as well as protect the heritage values of this emblematic area of the capital, according to the City Council in a statement.
De Armas stated that it will be the next government group of the Arrecife City Council that is constituted after the elections of May 22 the one in charge of carrying out the relevant reports for the initial approval of this plan by the plenary session of the corporation. The councilor recalled that this important document was intended to resolve the environmental impacts that contribute "to the devaluation of the image of the Historic Quarter and Charco de San Ginés, in addition to conserving and improving the natural resources of the Charco de San Ginés, considering the landscape of the environment as an asset to be protected".
Similarly, he added that this plan will "dynamize voids, while activating and designing spaces without a specific use", improving and adapting the networks of infrastructures and public services to the needs of the resident population and the new uses to be developed.
The commercial, recreational and leisure activities compatible with the preservation of the traditional character of the Charco de San Ginés, together with the promotion of architectural and artistic landmarks of reference, and the promotion of the seafaring identity of the Historic Center and Charco de San Ginés in the island context as a cultural and tourist center, are other aspects regulated by this plan, according to the capital City Council.
In this way, it is "a normative instrument that allows to know what can be done in this area of the capital, that is, the permitted heights, colors or type of building". "In short, we wanted to definitively order this important area of the island's capital," said the councilor.
From the Arrecife City Council it is expected that, once this special plan is definitively approved, the decree annulling the Asset of Cultural Interest (BIC) that currently weighs on the Charco de San Ginés and its entire area of influence will be signed. All the political groups of the capital Consistory have spoken out up to two occasions against the cataloging as BIC of the Charco for considering
that the protected area was "excessive".
Uses and building regulations
According to the report of the Special Plan for the Ordering of the Historic Center and Charco de San Ginés, the plan is born from the conviction that the area that comprises has "an enormous untapped potential, and with the desire to safeguard and promote its capabilities and the need to respond to an area in need of change and a future of activity and quality".
To this end, this regulatory instrument establishes the detailed planning and design of the measures aimed at protecting its architectural and ethnographic heritage, and at revitalizing the environment as a point of cultural, commercial and tourist attraction. In this sense, it contemplates the ordering of the bank of the Charco de San Ginés, the neighborhood of El Lomo, León y Castillo street, or the Four Corners, among others.
The Special Plan for the Ordering of the Historic Center and Charco de San Ginés also delimits, within the established scope, the public open spaces such as the bank of the Charco, the Plaza de Las Palmas, or the garden areas, establishing the different permitted and prohibited uses.
The Assets of Cultural Interest (BIC), the Cataloged Assets and the infrastructures, where public parking, roads, as well as lighting and electrical and telephone installations, in addition to street furniture, the facades, colors and carpentry, are included, are other aspects that this plan deals with in depth.
40 protected homes
The Special Plan for the Ordering of the Historic Center and Charco de San Ginés protects a total of 40 buildings in this entire area. Thus, the church of San Ginés, the Casa de los Arroyo, the Casa Parroquial de San Ginés, several buildings on Otilia Díaz street, another building on San Ginés street, as well as La Recova, the Catholic Library, the San Ginés bookstore and a building on Aquilino Fernández and Ginés de la Hoz street are preserved.
Also appearing in this Catalog of Protected Homes are dependencies of the first institution of Lanzarote, the building where the technical office of the Arrecife City Council is located, the old Bar Janubio, as well as the first headquarters of the Island Council. Other protected buildings are some shops located on Real street or very significant areas around the Charco such as El Aguaresío street or Plaza de Las Palmas.
For its part, for the homes in the area that are not part of this catalog, the plan contemplates the protection of buildings with architectural values, but also the possibility of renovation or replacement of the building that requires it. In this sense, it establishes the building regulations for each area of the environment of the Historic Quarter and Charco de San Ginés, explaining in detail the guidelines set for the conservation, restoration, consolidation and rehabilitation, as well as the protection or, on the contrary, the legal declaration of ruin.
