There are four buildings included in the draft protection catalog for Santa Cruz that already have a final ruling authorizing their demolition. This has been confirmed by the Santa Cruz Municipal Urban Development Management, which indicates that there are five other properties that already have a judgment in the first instance in the same sense, and another three are waiting for the court to rule, also in the first instance. These dozen buildings, as denounced during the recent electoral campaign by the spokesman for Unidas Podemos, Ramón Trujillo, are the ones that have lost the precautionary protection that they were provided by being in the draft protection catalogue. The delay in approving this last document is what has led the Superior Court of Justice of the Canary Islands, in the four buildings with a final judgment, to agree with the owners who had appealed the Urban Planning decision not to give them the license to demolish. , relying on their condition of being classified.
One of the buildings, the one located at the intersection of Carmen Monteverde and Juan Padrón streets, is part of the three buildings located in the Miraflores area that in 2017 were the protagonists of the confrontation between the Santa Cruz City Council and the Cabildo, precisely because of the Management decision to give its owners a license for demolition. Then the Cabildo intervened, going to court requesting precautionary measures, since the Insular Area of Historical Heritage considered that they deserved protection due to their architectural values, and in fact, in a 2010 report, this was stated. Now, after the approval of the TSJC, its owner will be able to demolish it to build a new residential building in what was the first headquarters of CajaCanarias in the capital.
However, another of the properties of this triad, the one known as Casa Clavijo, as DIARIO DE AVISOS has learned, which also ended up in court, will remain standing for the moment, since the court has considered that it has sufficient values to avoid its demolition.
Another of the properties with a favorable ruling is also located on Carmen Monteverde street, at the intersection with La X street. However, despite the fact that it could have been demolished, the property has chosen to keep the façade because it allowed to go faster, and in fact, it is already being rehabilitated. The third building stands on Santa Rosa de Lima street and the fourth on La Rosa street.
Precisely, given the avalanche of judgments contrary to the suspension of licenses that affect catalogable properties, the Management has repealed this order, processing the licenses that arrive like those of any other property, only referring to the Cabildo those that affect buildings cataloged in the current PGO, which dates from 2005. The easiest way for Santa Cruz right now to avoid a cascade of demolition requests is to approve the draft Catalog.
