The announcement by the President of the Government of Spain, Pedro Sánchez, that Defense land will be used for the construction of public housing has made all the autonomous communities wonder which land would be likely to comply with this announcement.
In the case of the Canary Islands, the website of the Defense Institute of Housing, Infrastructure and Equipment, where all the land, buildings and premises that the Ministry of Defense currently has for sale appear, the only space that is included in the section on expected sales is the San Francisco barracks, better known as the Cristo barracks, located in the Plaza del Cristo de La Laguna.
Classified as special equipment, this barracks has been inoperative for years and, according to the Defense website, the property has a total area of 18,563 square meters, divided into two properties of 17,063 and 1,500 square meters respectively, with different buildings on each a. It is also specified that the qualification of the lot is pending.
Asked the La Laguna City Council about the possible sale of this space, the mayor, Luis Yeray Gutiérrez, stated that “we have been claiming for years that the unused land that the Ministry of Defense has in the municipality should revert to the city, and now the circumstances exist for it.”
“From the City Council we proposed months ago the signing of a new agreement with the Government of Spain and the participation of the Cabildo, although the representatives of Defense considered it more viable to make an addendum to the agreement already in force,” he explained in this regard. On the part of both administrations, we have the firm intention of acquiring this plot that will allow the development of the natural expansion of the city beyond the Plaza del Cristo and will contribute to revaluing the entire Royal Sanctuary complex”.
Regarding the agreement you mentioned, it should be remembered that in 2019 the Cabildo and the Ministry of Defense sealed a Protocol of Intentions by which they agreed on the global framework of actions to be developed for the alienation, eviction and relocation of certain military installations on the Island, among them, that of the Cristo barracks. At that time there was talk of giving it an educational and cultural use, even housing a ULL center, such as the Faculty of Education.
Regarding possible future uses of this space, the mayor pointed out that “it is still early” to talk about them, although he pointed out that “they must be studied in accordance with what is established in the planning, but without a doubt many possibilities open up for the public, taking into account Count the dimensions of the lot. It is a process that will be long but it is now taking its first steps and we hope it will bear fruit satisfactorily”.
living place
Also consulted about whether this space could be one of the military lands that Defense has announced will be used for public housing, the Government Delegation in the Canary Islands did not confirm it and indicated that they had no information in this regard, and only referred to the final list that the Ministry will make public in the coming days.
Thus, the Defense Minister, Margarita Robles, stated yesterday that “in the next few days” the purchase of the military land on which the 20,000 new public homes announced by Pedro Sánchez will be built will be approved, and, although she did not specify the locations, He recalled that his department “has land throughout the national territory,” reported Efe. Specifically, Robles pointed out that the agreement will be taken “in the next few days” to the Council of Ministers and it will be at that moment when “where the land will be” will be explained to locate the homes that the Ministry of Defense is going to sell to the Public Company. Land Business (Sepes). As she explained, the law does not allow the transfer of those lands to Defense, which will receive an economic consideration for them “according to the appropriate appraisal.” The sale, agreed after “months” of negotiations between the Sepes and the Defense Housing Institute, will allow the Armed Forces to spend that money “on national defense needs.”
“What I can say is that Defense has a lot of land that is not in use, and whose maintenance is a burden,” he said.
