José Ignacio in the first line of fire in new zoning law debate

 

Maldonado Municipality has been rushing to approve a new zoning law for the Department before its exit from government this year end, and has chosen José Ignacio as the test case for its multi-disciplinary approach of planning and consultations. This is no accident, as small and remote Jose Ignacio has had an uncharacteristically strong and active community that according to one resident, “has made it what it is today.” This concerned and community-active resident adds that the current profile of Jose Ignacio –the low density, absence of tall buildings, restricted size of commercial areas, etc.— “is what we managed by sitting on the [Jose Ignacio] bridge and saying ‘no-one goes through until they understand what this place is about.’”

Pretty lame stuff elsewhere, but in apathetic, no-notion-of-local-community Uruguay, José Ignacio and its organized –and mostly foreign and wealthy— residents are daring trail-blazers.

If we were to look at the entire process with a bit of malice in interpreting City Hall intentions, we could venture that the thinking is “Once we clear the Liga de Fomento de José Ignacio, we have a blank check all the way to Punta Ballena” where the other hub of concerned, mostly foreign, wealthy and active citizenship resides, in the form of the Unión Vecinal de Punta Ballena y Laguna del Sauce. Unfortunately, that leaves practically all of the Punta del Este coastal corridor in between, where the big bribes are generated and where the largest damage is usually inflicted.

The re-zoning of the entire coast of Maldonado seems to have taken an irrepressible urgency for Mayor Oscar de los Santos, which has raised eyebrows among us, and outspoken complaints from presidential candidate and former Tourism Minister Pedro Bordaberry, who took the opportunity to voice them days ago at a well-attended real-estate event.

Specifically for José Ignacio, City Hall proposes the addition of one commercial street (to the three already allowed) within the 36 blocks of the “village proper,” permission for formerly banned lodging establishments, and the construction of a wooden walkway stretching from La Juanita – the area between the Jose Ignacio bridge and the traffic circle at the entrance of the town off Ruta 10 – all the way around the peninsula. Also under consideration is a “short-cut” road through the countryside, parallel to the sea, meant to relieve high-season traffic congestion.

As email servers worldwide overheat under the weight of José Ignacio´s NIMBY drive, the Liga de Fomento is getting ready for its August 17 meeting with the Mayor, where it plans to submit the results of an opinion poll conducted among neighbors, as well as studies by experts it hired to conduct its own assessments.

The immediate sources of contention are the addition of a commercial street in a town grid that is essentially 6 blocks by 6 blocks, and allowing setting up posadas, or bed&breakfast establishments, which in the view of residents will require further commercial activity to service them. Also, the wooden walkway is seen as destroying the current visual character of the place, with suggestions to replace it with a well kept trail with proper signage and some landscaping.

Other proposed changes include moving the beach concession stand several hundred yards further east from its current spot right by La Huella restaurant, and setting up a docking spot for sporting vessels (whatever that means, sailboats, canoes?) on the Mansa side, the beach looking West.

Among concerns regarding the process, neighbors cite the limited scope of involvement in this planning exercise with a 30 year horizon. They note that there are professionals advising City Hall from a scant number of areas, such as architecture and environment, with the notable absence of the Ministry of the Interior to address security and Economy and Tax authorities to address the viability of commercial activity off-season, in order to provide incentives to do away with the ghost-town syndrome that affects towns to the east such as La Barra, Manantiales and José Ignacio.

Stay tuned...