The Cabildo of Lanzarote has approved the initiation of the declaration of Assets of Cultural Interest (BIC) of three buildings in Arrecife, all three located on Calle Real: the old Hotel Oriental, the Market, and the old Tamaragua building. We have done so in application of the Cultural Heritage Law of the Canary Islands, which was unanimously approved by the autonomous Parliament in 2019, and which obliges the island councils and city councils to protect and conserve cultural heritage.
The mayor of Arrecife and parliamentarian of the Popular Party, Astrid Pérez, also voted in favor of the aforementioned Law. But, just as the Cabildo has decided to protect assets of undoubted patrimonial value, the mayor has chosen to wield a series of arguments, ranging from a lack of knowledge of the rules to half-truths, to try to justify her lack of interest in applying the Cultural Heritage Law.
Let's be clear: protecting means complying with the Law. Protecting is equivalent to including cultural assets in one of the protection instruments —BIC or catalogs— and not leaving them defenseless against capricious decisions. And since the initiation of the BICs is a competence of the Cabildo, we have decided to assume it with responsibility. In the case at hand, these are three buildings of undoubted patrimonial value, so it is not an arbitrary or poorly founded decision.
“In the Cabildo we have chosen to inform the citizens”
While the mayor of Arrecife harangues the population calling them to insubordination against the Cultural Heritage Law, in the Cabildo we have chosen to inform the citizens through an explanatory campaign. Our Heritage Service is available to anyone who wishes to confirm essential aspects, such as that urban planning licenses granted have not been suspended, neither in the three BICs nor in their surroundings. Or that the protection environment has been delimited to the minimum. Or that in these three buildings not only the rehabilitation of the property is allowed, but, in some cases, the extension and obtaining greater height is also allowed.
In the case of the Market, it was affected by a previous BIC declaration that had expired, and now a protection environment identical to the previous one has been re-delimited. For this case, new buildings built in the protection environment are limited to two stories. Nothing new, on the other hand, since the General Planning Plan of Arrecife in force establishes that, for street widths less than 6 meters, only one floor will be allowed, aligned in the facade and a second one set back 3 meters from the alignment.
“Protecting is not prohibiting”
On the other hand, the old Hotel Oriental has been part of several Municipal Catalogs in recent decades. Prior to the declaration, the Cabildo had communicated to the City Council, on numerous occasions, the existence of values in the aforementioned property, without the latter acknowledging it. On the contrary, the City Council granted a license to a construction project that would involve its interior emptying, which was negatively reported by the Historical Heritage Service and which dictated precautionary measures that suspended the municipal authorization. Given the negligence of the City Council, it has been declared as a BIC for being one of the most outstanding properties of the island's heritage.
Finally, the old Tamaragua building is part of one of the most significant sets of tall houses in Arrecife. Despite this, the mayor is dedicated to sowing doubts when, if she really wanted to know what the protection of a building entails, she can approach Manolo Millares street and check how the project carried out in the old Lasso Bookstore has turned out. It is an exemplary action that satisfies the legitimate aspirations of the property, while contributing architectural and landscape quality to the city.
I never tire of repeating that protecting is not prohibiting. The Cultural Heritage Law allows works to be carried out on the aforementioned properties, so the declaration of BIC does not paralyze the execution of the works, but only subjects them to prior authorization by the Historical Heritage Commission.
Ariagona González, National Deputy and Councilor for Environment, Heritage, Industry and Energy of the Cabildo of Lanzarote
