The jury that will decide the name of the winner of the architectural competition Arrecife-Puerto Ciudad for the execution of the project that should give a new shape to the marine and port front of the capital of the Island meets this Friday to make the second analysis of the projects presented, according to María Isabel Déniz this Monday.
This initiative, fundamental for the future of the capital's coastline and apart from other projects such as the Special Plan of the Port of Arrecife (PEPA) or the Infrastructure Master Plan, will be the prelude to the exhibition of the models of the works that will be done so that it is known in detail what is proposed before the jury makes a final decision.
With remarkable irony, in clear allusion to the latest criticisms that have arisen from the opposition about the other great maritime-port project, the mayoress also commented during her intervention in the radio program Buenos Días Lanzarote that "in order to criticize the PEPA, the first thing to do is to read it." She confessed to being somewhat tired of the shadow of the urban land speculation always looming over all matters related to the development of the island's capital, hence she does not understand that "after a public tender was held and the Port Authority hired the team that drafted the project, after it has been on public display for a month, now the criticisms return in the same direction."
For her, Arrecife needs people who contribute solutions without tension and without seeking arrangements for their particular interests. "Losing the opportunity to fix something as important as our port area says very little in favor of politicians who are not positive and who dedicate themselves to making criticisms just because," she stressed.
Déniz also said that it is "absolutely false" that the control of the PEPA remains in the hands of the Port Authority of Las Palmas, recalling that the agreement signed with them only stated that they would take care of the processing of the document. "This means that once there was a plenary agreement, we sent it to them so that they could communicate it to the parties and request the mandatory reports from bodies such as Coasts or Territorial Policy," she explained, stressing that the City Council is the one that has the obligation to carry out the approval.
The fact of having acted by decree for her is not a gesture of authoritarianism in this matter, but "a way of making use of my powers". "As I am here to govern and the law allowed me to make an approval by decree, I decided that it was the best way. It seems that in Arrecife you always have to look for something to say, and we have so many problems that we cannot waste time, especially because we are talking about the approval of a document that, among other things, will allow us to make the sports dock, the cruise dock and the rest of the actions that the coast needs so much."
María Isabel Déniz stated emphatically that the coastal management will occur exclusively from the north face of the Islote del Francés to the port, since she has already defined on several occasions that the rest is part of the city and is not susceptible to any type of action in this phase of the PEPA. "You cannot come now after a month of public display, a month that has been extended to two to overcome the theoretical inability of the month of August, to make this type of criticism," she said indignantly, pointing out that in these first thirty days some perfectly documented allegations have already been presented.
The islets and the large surfaces
Two of the issues that seem less clear at the moment have to do with the islets, both with that of Fermina and with that of Francés. In the case of the first, the mayoress assured that the information she has is that the Government of the Canary Islands, through the Ministry of Tourism, intends to rescue the old project that César Manrique had designed for the area and in any case make an action "as soft as possible." "The intention of the City Council is that it be carried out as soon as possible," she finished.
With regard to the Islote del Francés, she recalled that it is a matter linked to the approval of the General Plan, hence she insisted that the agreement that currently exists with the owners is not closed and will only be closed when the document is taken to plenary. "The proposal is none other than to leave three of the sixty thousand square meters for commercial and office use and the rest will be for the City Council with the condition of protecting the salt flats and with the aim of building the Congress Palace there," she detailed. "Everything will therefore be approved the day we can take the final approval of the General Plan to plenary," she remarked.
As her party colleague Celso Betancort had anticipated, the mayoress regretted that a City Council like that of Tías has already foreseen the transfer of a plot to put a congress palace next to the golf course, not because the Corporation presided over by the socialist José Juan Cruz Saavedra has done so, but because Arrecife is losing as many opportunities as it has lost. "I trust that we also have that capacity and can put Arrecife in the place that corresponds to it," she wished.
María Isabel Déniz does not like too much the debate that always arises around the large surfaces, reopened now that it is known that firms like Ikea are about to open their doors, hence during her radio intervention she was especially energetic with the question about the business criticisms to the municipal policy in this sense. "Maybe we already have large surfaces fractionated in ten establishments, and it would be an easy reading to see who has the commercial monopoly in Arrecife," she asserted, adding that "with the result of that reading you can understand how some have behaved with the development of new areas of commercial development that have appeared in the General Plan." "Facilities like Ikea, which for the moment is the only one of these characteristics that is going to be implemented, is an activity that is going to generate economy and that is going to serve as a starting point for the infrastructures of the polygon in which it is going to be, which in no case is bad," she summarized, affirming that it is about time that there are true elements that "regulate the market" and end with known circumstances such as that Lanzarote is the island in which everything is paid more expensive.
On the other hand, Déniz emphasized, responding to the doubts that have arisen once this newspaper advanced that most of the city councils had not yet prepared the documentation that José Carlos Mauricio demanded to invest the money that makes up part of the historical debt contracted with Lanzarote, that it is necessary to take into account the planning process that is being carried out, fundamental so that most of the investments can be executed. "We are in a position to cede to the Community several lands so that issues such as that of the university campus can be resolved," she specified finally.
