Clavijo has done it: he has eliminated the Commission for Territorial Planning and the Environment (COTMAC). His new Land Law leaves urban planning powers in the hands of the town councils. Of course, the construction sector applauds the law.
As if it were a revenge, Fernando Clavijo and the Canarian Coalition leave urban planning powers in municipal hands. In other words, the fact that COTMAC stopped the aspirations of some mayors to speculate, such as the main ones of the Coalition (as Clavijo himself was in the last legislature), ends with the law that they now intend to approve.
The draft bill in question wipes out the Consolidated Text of the Land Law of 2000, the Planning Guidelines (2003) and the Harmonization and Simplification Law (2014) in one fell swoop. They had it well studied, possibly even offered to builders and other land speculators. Yes, those who are accused of paying for electoral campaigns and other expenses of political parties.
The great novelty of the new law would be the transfer of powers to municipal entities over territory and urban planning. As if it were not enough, after COTMAC has acted by stopping continuous environmental attacks! Well, now COTMAC is left out of the game and municipal decisions are put first, for example.
In reality, the power to approve the planning now lies with the institution that drafts it, whether it is a town council or the Island Council, and COTMAC becomes an advisory body with its days numbered. Thus, Clavijo fulfills one of those absurdities that he uttered during the election campaign: to get rid of COTMAC.
The authors and defenders of the text argue that "only the new developable land necessary to meet the needs that are not met by the land already classified from the point of view of public interest will be admitted." So, from its approval, do not be surprised that some hotel or apartment complex, or some shopping center or other private business, appears cataloged as "of public interest". In the idealized banana republic of the Canarian Coalition semos asín (and the italics suit them well).
