Create a new green lung in Puerto de la Cruz. That is the objective to be achieved in Los Cachazos, in the El Durazno area, in an area of 21,000 square meters that is currently abandoned and that is intended to be recovered to turn it into a sports, leisure and community meeting park where the Green is the protagonist. A kind of Montillo, the urban macropark of La Matanza de Acentejo that has become a reference to the point that many municipalities aspire to have one with similar characteristics because it lacks nothing, it has an amphitheater, cafeteria, rest areas and picnic areas, a dog park, beach soccer field, calisthenics, skatepark, and even a lake area with waterfalls.
Despite being completely neglected and surrounded by rabo de gato, an invasive exotic species that is difficult to eliminate, the place is frequented throughout the day by many locals who go for a walk, run or simply walk their pets.
There are also those who choose to play sports since there are some nets to practice hammer throwing that are even used by medalists at a European level, as confirmed by the Councilor for Sustainable City, David Hernández. Hence, the idea is to transform this space into an eco-park, which, in addition to these uses, includes a children’s space, another for the elderly, paths for walking and a meeting center, for which it is proposed to rescue the old ponds that exist and take advantage of them to build a space for community well-being. In any case, it will be the citizens who decide the use that will be given to this municipally owned plot, since a participatory process has been opened to listen to their proposals and suggestions.
First steps
The first steps were taken in May when the Department of Sustainable City hired through an employment plan a multidisciplinary team made up of 11 people, including an architect, an agronomist, a graduate in Environmental Sciences , in addition to other work and gardening profiles, to develop the project. In turn, work began in parallel with the citizen participation team with which the decision-making process with the residents of El Durazno has begun, but the idea is to extend the process to the entire municipality. The initiative does not require large constructions nor does it depend on any specific urban plan that is pending approval, but on the current General Planning Plan (PGO) of Puerto de la Cruz “which allows this action to be carried out with the planned uses and in this place”, he maintains. David Hernandez.
In this regard, the councilman from Porto explains that what they call “soft actions” will be undertaken, which consist of adapting “what is, without losing vegetation, with the purpose, in addition, of recovering a space with a large area of trees that is located occupied by a private urbanization.
Nor does it involve a large investment, but cleaning the soil, introducing species -especially large trees that benefit the environment, people’s health and the cooling of the climate- and carrying out earthworks to delimit walking trails.
The work team has already begun the analysis of the terrain and the different elements that make it up, both natural and structural. The idea is to execute the project in phases to make it easier. The first of them will consist, as is obvious, in the cleaning and adaptation of the site. The ecopark will not be completely finished in this mandate “but we will see results and we will be able to start using it, since that is the objective,” promises the mayor.
However, the future eco-park is not an isolated action but is part of a city model designed to face and compensate for the challenges of climate change, which seeks to renaturalize certain spaces with green corridors that will link different parts of the municipality. In this specific case, a passable bridge is contemplated that crosses the ravine and joins the area of the La Horca mountain, the Guacimara urbanization, Los Cachazos and the Botanical Garden.
Design the municipality of the future
“We are working on zoning the municipality to see what the natural characteristics of each nucleus are, to know the number of inhabitants, green areas and parking spaces in each one of them and based on these data, design the Puerto de la Cruz of the future with some guidelines that can mark a new management plan,” emphasizes Hernández.
The model to which they aspire is one that continues to attract and favor both public and private investment, which also prioritizes the quality of spaces and visitors and tourists with sustainability, because all this, in the end, “will revert to health of the neighbors,” highlights the Sustainable City councilor.
