Cross port are its beaches, hotels and its catering offer. Also good temperatures, rest and leisure. Sometimes it remains in the background, but at least one more attribute joins the previous ones: a historic center of undoubted value, with buildings from another time and charming streets. Now, to protect that area, the Porto City Council has managed to give the definitive impulse that the Special Plan for the Protection of the Historical Center (PEPCH), a document that had been bogged down a decade ago. The text protects real estate and, in a special way, land houses; unique trees and flora, and even intangible assets.
A detailed analysis of the Plan, presented weeks ago and which has been initially approved, shows protection from different fronts. The Councilor for Sustainable City and Planning, David Hernández, recalls that the center of the Cross port It was declared an Asset of Cultural Interest (BIC) in 2006 and that from that moment the document was required. “There was an initial approval in 2011, but the final approval was not reached because the allegations were not answered,” he says. And until this mandate the wait lasted. The new text is not the approval of the one that was left in limbo, but rather another “new and much more ambitious” one, which is now going to be released to the public.
Hernández points out that it is the main “milestone” of the port government during the mandate which now concludes, and points out that the Special Plan has up to seven types of catalogs. The architectural includes 220 properties, which represents an increase of 131 compared to the current municipal catalogue, while the ethnographic includes 13 properties, 15 elements and 2 spaces, expanding with respect to the current planning by 5 properties, 13 elements and 2 spaces. . Then there are the catalogs of Urban Spaces and Natural Spaces, which include 13 and 2 places, respectively, expanding by 3 urban sites with respect to the current catalogue.
New types of catalog
One of the novelties comes with the inclusion of three new types of catalog related to the ethnographic complex, the intangible heritage and the vegetation. According to the data provided, the ethnographic Set, made up of 38 crosses located on the facades of the buildings, “in most cases it does not present individual values”, but it is “support of deep-rooted cultural manifestations that are transmitted from generation to generation (such as the frame of crosses)”, that make up the local identity. “Secondly, the intangible heritage, which includes cultural manifestations that take place in the historic center, such as the Virgen del Carmen boat, the mataculebra and the goat bath,” says David Hernández. The mayor places special emphasis on the Catalog of Monumental Trees and Singular Flora, “consisting of 15 species, which include 476 trees, among which are the 4 trees included in the Catalog of Monumental Trees of the Island Council of Tenerife».
Thus, and with respect to the current catalogue, they are incorporated 136 new properties (131 included in the architectural catalog and 5 in the ethnographic), 51 new elements (among which are included the 38 crosses belonging to the Catalog of the Ethnographic Ensemble), 5 new spaces (2 belonging to the ethnographic catalog and 3 spaces of the Catalog of Urban Spaces), intangible heritage (the boat of the Virgen del Carmen, the mataculebra and the bath of the goats) and the monumental trees and singular flora, with the aforementioned 16 plant species and which include 476 trees.
As for the notable increase in buildings, behind them are fundamentally the earth houses. «This significant increase in the number of properties is due to a large extent to the recognition of all those buildings of earthen typology that make up the essential construction model of the popular classes during a good part of the history of the urban area of Puerto de la Cruz, located mainly in the neighborhood of La Ranilla”, they expose from the City Council of the Tourist City.
To better understand the relevance of the Plan, it is necessary to go back more than fifteen years. “The declaration of the Historic Site of Puerto de la Cruz as an Asset of Cultural Interest in 2006 entails the obligation to draw up a Special Plan and a Protection Catalog that guarantees the preservation of its heritage values”, collect the data provided by the institution local. And they add: «The area of management of the Special Plan is limited to the delimitation defined in the Declaration of the aforementioned BIC, which houses the historic center, as well as a set of 21 islets distributed throughout the municipality». In the case of the center, there are four differentiated urban areas: the esplanade of the pier, which covers the band built to the north of Mequínez street and the area reclaimed from the sea corresponding to the future maritime park, whose planning is referred by the current planning to a Special Plan; the urban area of San Telmo-El Muelle, corresponding to the maritime border linked to the fishing pier and the promenade and the hermitage of San Telmo; the central or founding nucleus of Puerto de la Cruz, and La Ranilla.
From the Consistory they emphasize that in order to arrive at this management model, they have opted for a participatory process. “Different participatory tools have been implemented: workshops, transects, forums, interviews, work meetings and opinion inquiries through the historic complex’s web portal, in which different social agents, technical personnel and people residing in the municipality participated,” he says. the institution.
road restructuring
Another relevant aspect is the road restructuring that arises This, say those responsible for the action, is based on the new accesses contemplated in the remodeling project of the TF-312 road drawn up by the Cabildo de Tenerife, “which will make it possible to turn Punta de la Carretera street into a two-way street and generate a new direct access point to the historic complex from the aforementioned road. To this element are added some roundabouts that are proposed and that would be located in the area of the current field of soccer municipal (next to the Rock), which would make it possible to decouple the traffic of the future marina and maritime park from that relating to the historic center.
A special mention deserves the initiative regarding parking lots. Here the “progressive elimination” of the existing squares on public roads is proposed “to give priority to pedestrian, bicycle or any non-motorized means”. And there would be no parking lots? The City Council clarifies that, “to guarantee compensation for the loss of parking spaces in public spaces, as well as the demand for parking from residents of the historic center who do not have a fixed space in their property, the parking bags are maintained contemplated in the current planning, although the minimum dimensioning of said bags is evaluated to guarantee an adequate balance ». The bet includes the definition of some phases of execution of said actions, which will be “linked to the effective construction of the different parking bags”.
