Taking a walk through some areas of Santa Cruz leaves a bitter feeling, with buildings in a very poor state of conservation, lots where garbage accumulates or gardens colonized by weeds. Putting a stop to this type of situation is the main objective that the Municipal Planning Department has set for itself through the Planning Discipline service, whose activity has multiplied since it was provided with specific personnel last year.
The result of this reinforcement of the department is evidenced in the number of disciplinary proceedings that have been initiated in the first six months of this 2022, whose number has doubled with respect to those initiated in the same period of 2021, and which are 45 % more than those opened in 2020. Thus, in this last year, 22 files were processed, the following year 16, and this year 32, all in the first six months of the year.
Sanctioning proceedings such as the one initiated in Pedro Pinto de la Rosa street for breaching the duty of conservation and whose sanction reaches 50,000 euros. Urban Discipline has processed another file with a penalty of 70,000 euros for a work without a license, unfinished and in a state of abandonment that rises in the Plaza de La Victoria. One more example of the work of the service is another sanctioning file worth 60,000 euros in Anaga, opened for the execution of a third plant without having permission to do so.
The Councilor for Urbanism, Guillermo Díaz Guerra, expresses in this regard that “the law is very clear regarding the duty of property owners to conserve, and what we are not going to do is let people speculate on the abandonment of buildings to fall down. If the law allows us to sanction from minute one with the highest amount, that is what we are going to do”, pointed out the mayor, who also recalled that for each deadline not met by the owners when complying with the Management orders, coercive fines are imposed.
Díaz Guerra insists that “it is over” to speculate on the safety and health of buildings and lots in Santa Cruz, which is why the Urban Discipline service has become one of the Management’s priorities.
Priorities
Precisely, to speed up the work of the Urban Discipline, an instruction has been issued to the service so that they prioritize the processing of the different files based on the infractions that are detected. Thus, the number one priority of the service is intervention in situations that entail danger for goods and people due to works not covered by the enabling title. Along with these files, there are the non-compliance with the duty of conservation of the owners that poses a risk to property and people, the ruin files and the complaints that reach Urban Planning for this reason.
As a second priority when processing files are those related to major works not covered by qualifying title; as well as to transfer to the competent body those infractions for which the Management is not competent, such as the Agency for the Protection of the Urban and Natural Environment (Apmun), the Historical Heritage of the Cabildo or the Council itself. City hall; also the certificates of Urban Discipline and consultation of files, as well as those of urban prescription and inscriptions in the Land Registry, complete this second block of priorities.
In third place when it comes to prioritizing files are infractions related to minor works that disturb the general interest and that have been duly reported by neighbors, by the Local Police or by other Public Administrations; but also included in this section are the plots that are not properly closed or in adequate cleaning conditions, but that do not pose a special problem for the neighbors. Finally, minor works that do not pose a danger or disturb the general interest, including communications left without effect, close the order of priorities in this section.
An order of priority has also been marked in the service for the classified activities, so that the first on the list are the files that affect those activities that do not have a qualifying title with a complaint or damage to the general interest.
Secondly, the Discipline service has as a priority those activities that have a qualifying title and have been denounced or generate damage to the general interest.
In third place, the records of innocuous activities with denunciation or damage to the general interest will be prioritized and in fourth place the activities classified without complaint and that do not generate damage to the general interest.
