Taken from Listín Diario
SANTIAGO.-The Urban Planning Department of this city has halted 500 buildings so far this year that were intended to be erected without any type of construction permits required by law.
The last project halted by the Department of Urban Planning was a four-story building located in the Real Urbanization, in the Francisco del Rosario Sánchez sector in the southern part of this city.
Nancy Espinal, the director of Urban Planning for the Santiago city council, indicated that many contractors, engineers, and construction owners undertake the task of starting construction with false documentation.
Espinal argued that Santiago has a very rapid growth as demonstrated by economic figures, and that this type of dynamism gives rise to this type of informal settlements and uprisings.
Espinal explained that the more than 500 projects that have been halted are located in different sectors of Santiago and that thanks to the monitoring by the staff she directs, they have been able to stop them.
Engineer Ervin Vargas attributes the collapse of several buildings and construction projects in the city of Santiago to the fact that they do not have any type of permits from the city council for land use, nor from the Ministry of Housing and Buildings (MIVED).
Lack of surveillance
Collusion.
Ervin Vargas indicated that in many cases, these types of projects are started irregularly by their builders because they enter into collusion with the various inspectors assigned to oversee them.
Cover photo: Listín Diario.
