The José Ignacio Development League responded to the statements in the justice of the Argentine businessman Andrés Reinaldo Rossi in defense of construction of his house on the coast of the José Ignacio resortand reaffirmed the importance of the land use regulations that prevents the construction of houses that are not light in that area.
In a report presented by the neighbors to the Justice, carried out by the doctor in Territorial Planning Pablo Ligrone and to which he agreed The Observerit is argued that “all building and construction are conditioned by the Territorial Ordering and sustainable development and are not autonomous of their determinations”.
For this, Ligrone is based on article 27 of the Law on Territorial Planning and Sustainable Development, which indicates that “authorizations contrary to the provisions of the instruments may not be granted” of this standard, something that is an exclusive requirement for the Prior Environmental Authorization of all construction, granted to the house of Rossi by the Ministry of Environment despite assuming that the house is not a light construction.
The case
The neighbors of José Ignacio and Rossi have been in a legal dispute since 2019when the League denounced irregularities in the construction of the house for having been built with concretewhich, as they understand, does not comply with the regulations for the construction of light structures for the coastal protection zoneand also for a error in the distance of the piles that raise the houseto your understanding less than 3 meters recommended.
In mid-August Rossi responded to the Justice that “it is not disputed that the house was made on stilts, which shows that it fulfilled the character of light”although the businessman’s defense remarked that the definition of a light or heavy house “It has nothing to do with the environmental effects that a construction can generate”as read in the letter to which he agreed The Observer.
The Municipality of Maldonado and the Ministry of the Environment determined the suspension of construction in 2020, but in November 2021 they lifted this measure and they allowed Rossi to continue with the construction, with a fine of 500 readjustable units (RU).
The construction was guaranteed according to the Article 21 of the Ordered Text of Building Regulations (TONE)which protects the intendant, in this case Enrique Antia, to authorize procedures outside the ordinance in matters that have nothing to do with the area occupied by the house, its height or the withdrawals. The community approved the construction despite “not having built the structure with light materials, although it is on stilts” because “in all other respects conforms to the norm”details the 2020 resolution to which he had access The Observer.
“The ordinance does not clarify what it refers to when it speaks of light. In architecture, I can say that an architecture is light because its image is light, for example, regardless of whether its construction system is light“he said in June to The Observer Soledad Laguarda, director of Urbanism of the IDM, consulted on the fitting out of Rossi’s house.
The defense of the businessman was shielded in this gray point: “The building regulations in many cases establish guidelines, but they are not insurmountable limits.”
“determining” rules
Citing the Law on Territorial Ordering and Sustainable Development, Ligrone responded that “the departmental governments will have the power to categorize the land, as well as to establish and apply territorial regulations,” but “through the elaboration, approval and implementation of the instruments established” by the norm cited above.
In addition, he graphed that there are clear differences in the affectation of the environment between a house “of light characteristics and on wooden stilts with significant separation between them and at a precise distance from the ground” and another “heavy characteristic on structure of piles/pillars/reinforced concrete foundations, with piles close to each other and at a short distance or supported on the ground” Like Rossi’s.
“No computer in the territory would stop to specify these requirements in the standard if they were not determining, essential, to be required in an area, in a type of soil, in the link with the coastal dynamics and the specific environment”remarked the doctor, who studied at the Sorbonne University in Paris and is a 5th grader at the Faculty of Architecture of the University of the Republic.
The obligations that are marked for this house are within those that have the constructions in the protection zone of the coastal stripin this case for three blocks of José Ignacio, and which are regulated by the Decree 3927/2014 that supports the specific land use plan for José Ignacio and Garzón, mentioned by Ligrone as the “Plan between lagoons”.
According to article 72 of this decree, “in the processes for the introduction of partial revisions of the determinations of the Plan” for this area you must have the “technical opinion of the Permanent Special Commission for Patrimonial Advice”something that the neighbors denounce it was not requested by the Municipality of Maldonado before approving the construction of Rossi.
