The Arrecife City Council has made public the two municipal reports it had to authorize the "restructuring" license of the old Hotel Oriental building, which was finally left on the table this Friday at the Governing Board, postponing the decision until next Thursday. In this regard, in a statement, they explain that the reason was the letter received "a few hours before" from the Cabildo, "indicating, among other aspects, artistic and heritage elements in this property".
"With this postponement, we want to make it easier for the legal services of the Technical Office to have time to issue their report and opinion on the content presented by the Island Council in its letter", says the Consistory, which insists that they already had two favorable reports from municipal technicians, a legal one and another urban planning one. In addition, it emphasizes that a court ruling obliged it to resolve that file, which began three years ago.
According to the Consistory, it was in 2017 when the license application was received to intervene in this building, which in addition to the Hotel Oriental has also housed a record store, a jewelry store and a tailor shop in recent decades. That request was presented by Juan Carlos González Berriel on behalf of Inmobiliaria Chimida S.L.
"On November 15, 2017, the submitted project is sent to the Heritage Department of the Island Council of Lanzarote to report, given the historical artistic values that are recognized to the building in the Supplementary PGO of Arrecife, giving it environmental protection as an emblematic building, although the property is not included in the Catalog of the General Plan in force", explains the Consistory, which adds that the response from the Cabildo did not arrive until more than a year later, specifically on March 29, 2019. By then, the promoter had already filed an appeal with the Contentious-Administrative Court Number 2 of Las Palmas, against the presumed rejection of the license application.
That Court issued a ruling in December 2019, condemning the City Council to "continue with the processing of the file relating to the granting of the requested license, obtaining the issuance without delay of the technical and legal reports on the adequacy of the project to the applicable urban planning law". As a result of that ruling, the current mayor, Ástrid Pérez, issued a decree last October giving instructions to comply with what was ordered in the ruling.
"Examined by the Municipal Technical Services the documentation that accompanies it, on November 16, 2020, a favorable report is issued to the granting of the license, as it is in accordance with the urban planning and technical regulations that apply to it", emphasize from the Consistory. Regarding the opinion that the Heritage area of the Cabildo had already issued at that time, making warnings about the values of the property, the municipal report maintains that it is not "binding", given that the building "is not included in the catalog of the General Plan in force".
In addition, the government group led by Ástrid Pérez maintains that the Cabildo's report was issued in its day out of time, and they emphasize that the ruling already remarked that "in the absence of the issuance of a report" from the Island Corporation, then presided over by Pedro San Ginés, the City Council "should have continued with the processing of the file, in accordance with the provisions of the land law, resolving with respect to the authorization that was requested and not remaining silent for more than two years as it has done”.
Finally, it also highlights that the municipal technical report "makes it clear that the works will consist of maintaining the facade and restructuring the interior of the building, leaving the two floors open, maintaining the central courtyard, complying with the presented project with the Technical Building Code and the determinations of the General Plan”.
However, given the new letter sent this week by the Cabildo, recalling the warnings contained in its 2019 report, the Governing Board has decided this Friday to leave the issue on the table so that the municipal technicians can speak again. According to the Consistory, the intention is to take it to an extraordinary Board next Thursday.