The La Laguna Urban Planning Department (GULL) has asked the Canary Islands Government that the variant of the North Highway (TF-5), as it passes through the municipality, respects the different demographic enclaves of the area and growth expectations of the city, taking into account the route already contemplated in the current General Management Plan (PGO) and, as far as possible, the burying of different points of the future road.
The mayor of La Laguna, Luis Yeray Gutiérrez, and the councilor for Land Management and director counselor of the GULL, Santiago Pérez, have made public this Tuesday their position in favor of this deviation, to be executed between Guamasa and Guajara, because it will contribute to End the queues that occur on this section of the TF-5 and will allow the city to be reunited, but they alluded to a series of recommendations that have been transferred to the regional Executive in order to be addressed.
These considerations are part of the report that the autonomous body has prepared and that it has sent to the Ministry of Public Works to respond to its October letter, in which it requested documentation on the PGO and on the infrastructures of the scope of action because it is already writing the project.
In the document, the Management values the route contemplated in the planning, which tries to avoid as many conditions as possible, and refers to the convenience of burying various parts of the variant to reduce its impact.
The local councilor recalled that the City Council, the Council of Tenerife and the Government of the Canary Islands agree that the execution of this deviation is a measure that will contribute to considerably improve the mobility of the island.
In this line, he affirmed that, unlike the Vía Exterior, “which at the time the government of the Canary Coalition tried to carry out” and that the government team rejects completely, “it is a much more environmentally friendly alternative and it causes much less impact on the agricultural land ”, at the same time that it will allow“ to heal that scar that divides in two ”the city, crossed by the highway.
Due to the complexity involved in its development, and taking into account that the project is currently in the drafting phase, Luis Yeray Gutiérrez asked the Canarian Government to take into account that option that causes “the least affection.”
To do this, it is committed to the greatest possible burial – taking into account the routes of San Miguel, San Bartolomé and San Francisco de Paula of the current General Plan, because they make up a plot that should not be interrupted -, as well as respecting “the buildings of the area through which the variant will pass, either assuming the route foreseen in the PGO or running all the necessary sections in a tunnel ”.
AGAINST THE OUTSIDE DC WAY
For his part, Santiago Pérez reported that the proposal that has been sent to the regional area defends a deviation that “in no case, hinders the communication routes or the development possibilities to the south and east of the territory, at the same time time to minimize the impact on agricultural land and the nuclei that are in the area, as is the case of La Costurera ”.
To fulfill this purpose and prevent the road structure from becoming a new dike, the councilor requires the Executive to “take into account the model contemplated in the planning, which is fairly respectful of the enclaves, and that the route runs below the ground level in those places where it is necessary, in order to guarantee the connection between both sides of the city, today divided by the TF-5 ”.
The mayor stressed that this future road “is foreseen in the Insular Planning Plan as an autonomous piece different from the External Road, which the Canary Coalition intended to execute and which would affect more than one million square meters of rustic land for agrarian protection in our municipality”.
In his opinion, “the defense of agricultural land and Vega Lagunera is not negotiable.”
