La Mesa Mota is a natural space in which various activities converge today that coexist with the natural values of this area, and which, in addition, still has a lot of potential to be developed as a peri-urban park in the metropolitan area. For this reason, the Cabildo, through the area of Management of the Natural Environment and Security, commissioned the public company Gesplan to draft a master plan to “see how we make the part of conservation of the territory and natural values converge with the use public that takes place there today, ”says the area’s insular councilor, Isabel García.
“The Cabildo saw that there was a need for a document that would analyze the possibilities of ordering and bringing together all the activities that normally take place there, so that they are carried out safely and in an orderly manner and, above all, that they do not put the values at risk. natural and conservation areas that Mesa Mota has, because it should be noted that there we are trying to work on an ecological corridor that is completely subdivided, and that we want to extend it to unite Las Lagunetas with Anaga”, explains Isabel García.
A master plan that the Cabildo already has and that is “very complete” and involves “a good analysis of all the possibilities” that can be developed in this space. “It is the first analysis of the Mota Table, it is very rich and complete and it is budgeted, but it is still a document to work on now from the different areas and see if it could be processed as a project of insular interest. I certainly see it, because the Mesa Mota deserves it, it is a privileged place and there is a very important ecological corridor”, he points out. Isabel García adds that it would be necessary for the Cabildo to process this legal figure “which is used for projects that take place in different municipalities and that have a declared general and public interest. And that also makes it possible to overcome the limitations that the different municipalities have in their own planning, in this case La Laguna, Tegueste and the Cabildo itself”.
Mesa Mota has a total surface area of 46 hectares, of which 78% is public territory and the remaining 22% is private. “Of those 46 hectares, 28 belong to the Cabildo. And this plan basically establishes the actions on public land, and especially the Cabildo. It also touches a little bit of private properties, but in a very small quantity and in a very simplified way”, says the counselor.
More intensive uses
With regard to the uses analyzed by Gesplan, more intensive ones have been established, which concentrate a greater number of people and which also require larger equipment, such as a recreational area. “This plan includes it as a possible need, but let’s remember that this plan is a draft and that it has not yet been approved. Right now there is a recreational area in the territory of La Laguna, which is attended by the City Council, and the plan establishes the improvement of that area and proposes a possible second recreational area, larger, on the land of the Cabildo. If it were to be done, it would have to be done in the area where there are already marked roads and nearby car parks”, he explains.
In addition, the plan contemplates the possibility of other spaces related to “children’s recreation, playgrounds, socio-cultural activities, shows, which would even have to do with the building that is already there and that would obviously have to be rehabilitated to be able to carry out activities related with children, from shows to a visitor center, or children’s activities”.
However, from the insular area it is aware that the City Council of La Laguna has proposed that a parador be installed in this building, as recently announced by the mayor of La Laguna, so “this plan would have to be reviewed in that aspect , because it had the rehabilitation of the building for cultural activities, shows, educational, visiting and an environmental education center, a kind of multipurpose center where environmental education was somewhat the central axis, and the interpretation of the Mesa Mota itself. Now we have to analyze that proposal again, and see where we could achieve that goal, because the Mota Table deserves to be told somewhere, since it has an ethnography, a history, agriculture, water, transhumance…”, explains Isabel Garcia.
The plan also includes improving access to the area and a car park added to the two that already exist.
Likewise, the document addresses a second demand “which is also important, which is less intensive, more sustainable, and which has more to do with sports activities”. In this regard, the document includes issues such as “the rehabilitation of trails and roads that the Mesa Mota has, which are many and some are very busy; It would only require a rehabilitation of what is there, it would not need to generate new infrastructures, but to fix and tidy up what we already have. For this, it is establishing itself in an area called the Llano de Mesa Mota or also in the area of the summit of El Rincón, which would be ideal for this type of activity”, indicates the island councilor.
Similarly, “it would be compatible, in other areas, which the plan also contemplates, with running, athletics, mountain biking, equestrian rides, calisthenics, bio-healthy parks… all adapted to people with reduced mobility”, as well as “with activities of contemplation of nature. There could be places for climbing walls, recreation, and dog parks, which is another demand”.
“The plan includes all these activities and establishes which places would be the ideal ones to be carried out safely and that they do not collide with other activities,” says Isabel García.
On the other hand, the document also contemplates “dedicating an area to urban gardens, which would be a place where people can have their small plot, recover a little agriculture, and which is also a place for experimentation from the point of view of organic farming and kilometer zero”.
From an ecological point of view, the plan also includes “activities that are compatible with the conservation of natural values, reforestation work, elimination of exotic plants, cleaning trails, establishing which trails should be used and what areas must be free of people, to be conserved, that have to do with that corridor and can have a scientific, research, educational use, ”adds the island councilor.
Next legislature
All the measures and proposals included in the plan are budgeted at around 7.2 million, “including the rehabilitation of the building, which is just over two million, and the plan would have to be executed in the short-medium term, which is what is established in the document, because it would be executable, are not very long works in time”.
However, Isabel García acknowledges that with the administrative procedure that still remains, there would not be time to start executing the plan in the remainder of the legislature, since “it is a basic document on which to work and modify it” with the proposals that be done from the different island areas or neighborhood groups, because, “although a meeting has already been held with the neighbors to put it in common and they made their contributions”, he considers that more neighborhood workshops should be held “so that the people who live there have more opportunity to participate in it.”
Therefore, “the plan would have to be approved, make public information about it and, once it was approved, it would have to be declared as of general interest and make a project of insular interest, and this takes a long administrative procedure. So I don’t see it for this legislature, there wouldn’t be time, but for the next one”, he points out.
Isabel García points out that the Cabildo is working on finding more areas that become peri-urban parks, since society demands “to have places for recreation and leisure” and, in addition, “we are trying to decongest areas such as Anaga, Teno , the National Park, Las Lagunetas… which are very overloaded, and, of course, the Mesa Mota is a perfect alternative for the metropolitan area”. “Mesa Mota can allow this use, which, if we organize it well, can be very balanced and sustainable and coexist with the ecological corridor that we want to promote, with which it seems to me a project that I hope can be processed, because I think it is very promising” , emphasizes the insular counselor.
Finally, remember the latest improvements that the Cabildo has made in the area: “We have 10 people who are working on reforestation activities, recovering the most degraded areas, cleaning, renewing the plants, and we have set up some areas to do sports, gym elements, we have rehabilitated an area for walking, benches, interpretive tables…”
The lagoon
Meanwhile, from La Laguna, its Councilor for the Environment, José Luis Hernández, assesses this master plan as “very satisfactory”. “We have done a first reading and it seems fantastic to us, we totally agree with what it contains, because basically it meets the aspirations of the groups linked to the Mota Table, to whom we sent the document in the public exhibition phase and they they made several contributions, and everything that was raised is collected”, he explains.
The mayor considers that “it will represent a qualitative leap to see in a reasonable time concrete actions to develop this master plan”, although he pointed out that it has been transferred to the Cabildo that, “if it were possible throughout this year, even though This master plan has not yet been approved, we have proposed, in agreement with Tegueste, that the accesses to the Mesa Mota be tidied up, in line with what is contemplated in the project, because it is a priority”.
As for the building located in the area, “the idea that is on the table that it be a parador does not seem like a bad option to me because it guarantees its sustainability and due to the infrastructure of a parador itself, which has assembly halls and rooms, it could be reach some type of agreement so that it can have the possibility of being used for environmental activities, such as congresses,” says José Luis Hernández.
