This Monday the municipality of Puerto Varas sent a decree that indicates the paralysis of four real estate projects that were located in different rural areas of the commune.
Specifically, they are the Petrohue River Side, Indanmapu, Parque Huillín and Parque Bosques sectors where the real estate works were located. From the Municipality they argue that this measure is in response to the uncontrolled increase in urbanization in agricultural areas of the lake district.
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“We will not allow rural real estate projects to continue to be developed for housing purposes outside of urban planning. During 2021 alone, nearly 6,000 new subdivisions were registered in our commune, completely outside of any planning. This is very serious, since most do not have access to drinking water, sewage treatment, connection to lighting, waste management, road maintenance, connectivity or transportation,” said the mayor of Puerto Varas through a statement, Thomas Garate.
The real estate companies in question did not comply with Decree Law 3,516, which regulates the division of property in rural areas, and with article 55 of the General Law of Urbanism and Construction, which establishes a general prohibition for the development of works outside the planning, otherwise that we are also facing projects that put people’s lives at serious risk.
Faced with this, the mayor added that “in 2017, our commune already registered 44 thousand inhabitants, with a demographic growth of 204% in the last 15 years. But after the social outbreak and during the pandemic, the situation got out of control. In In recent years we have seen an exponential proliferation of urbanizations in rural areas, without any planning and without the necessary services to deal with this massive arrival of new families. The environmental, social and urban impact that this causes in our territory is incalculable”.
“It also does not consider environmental variables, settling in areas of volcanic risk or in areas of high ecological value. This also gives rise to witchcraft subdivisions, properties that do not pay taxes or cleaning rights, which contaminate groundwater with particular solutions of wastewater and they have water resources that are scarce today. The rural real estate market is out of control and is not assuming the negative externalities that it causes,” he added.
Referring to the paralysis of the Gárate projects, he specified that “our intention is not to prohibit the arrival of new families, but it must be done in a responsible and regulated manner. Lake communities such as Puerto Varas stand out for having a human scale in their city and their localities, but Phenomena like this put the quality of life of our inhabitants at risk. We must put a stop to real estate speculation, coordinate public services and promote the legal modifications that are necessary to regulate the growth that the south of the country is receiving.”
