The State Defense Council (CDE) filed a lawsuit this Friday in the Second Environmental Court against four real estate initiatives located in ecological preservation areas in the communes of Colina and Lo Barnechea.
These are the companies Desarrollo La Dehesa SpA. in charge of the Chaguay Project, MDPR SpA, owner of the Mirador Pie Andino project, Inmobiliaria e Inversiones La Cumbre Oriente SpA, responsible for the La Cumbre Project, and Inmobiliaria e Inversiones Chicureo SpA in charge of Hacienda Guay Guay.
The four complexes are closely linked to “powerful” businessmen such as Gabriela Luksic, Andrónico’s sister – from the controlling family, among others, of the Quiñenco Group, one of the largest business conglomerates in Chile; Vittorio Corbo Urzúa, son of the former president of the Central Bank and valued adviser and director of large companies; Diego Errázuriz Zañartu, son of Antonio Errázuriz, president of the Chilean Chamber of Construction (CChC); and José Luis Délano, son of businessman Carlos “Choclo” Délano – the family that owns the Dominga mining project and controls the disputed Penta group.
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“These four projects […] They have executed urbanization works consisting of the construction and opening of roads and transit routes, widening of already existing internal roads, paving, leveling of land, installation of postage equipment, lighting fixtures, and overhead and underground power lines, as well as the installation of drinking water networks. All the aforementioned works have been carried out on rural land, which exceeds the urban limit, where the opening of streets is prohibited, subdividing to form towns, constituting urban nuclei outside the regulation, and are also located in an Area of Ecological Protection (hereinafter “APE”) in accordance with the Metropolitan Regulatory Plan of Santiago (hereinafter “PRMS”), which only allows a limited number of activities in it, within which it does not consider the development of projects for housing or residential”, expresses the demand of the CDE.
According to the lawsuit, the four real estate initiatives violate the regulations for the protection and conservation of rural land.
“In short, protective and conservative regulations of rural land are violated, as an environmental component, ecosystem services base and essential element for the subsistence of ecosystems and biodiversity, as well as urban regulations, which, in the same sense, seek to prevent the emergence of new urban centers, beyond any territorial planning, without mitigation measures and eventually environmental repair or compensation,” the letter states.
In this sense, from the CDE they point out that those responsible for the projects “have resorted to the strategy of subdividing, subdividing and urbanizing illegally, in order to force the subsequent regularization of the works and new urban centers -under the logic of fait accompli – In order to force the urban and environmental authority to accept the qualification of the area as an area for residential use against what is expressly established by the PRMS, and to socialize the subsequent environmental loss”.
History of environmental complaints
Additionally, these real estate projects have a history of environmental complaints. Even this is not the first lawsuit filed by the State Defense Council. On February 24, 2022, the CDE filed a criminal complaint against the legal representatives of the companies responsible for the execution of the four projects, arguing that these works are being carried out in an Ecological Protection Area.
Likewise, the action filed by the CDE is based on the affectation of Archaeological Monuments by the company Desarrollos La Dehesa SpA, through the execution of the project “Habilitation of Access Roads and Complementary Facilities of the Chaguay Agricultural Subdivision”.
Along the same lines, the Superintendence of the Environment (SMA) began a procedure to demand an environmental evaluation in October 2022.
“In these cases, we have initiated a procedure to require admission to the SEIA precisely because it is estimated that there is an evasion of the environmental system,” explained the Superintendent of the Environment (s) Emanuel Ibarra to The counter.
