The process of designing the territorial planning instrument will last six months and the company ABC Projects, chaired by engineer Samuel Abreu, is the executor.
The Law on Territorial Planning, Land Use and Human Settlements (368-22), enacted by President Luis Abinader last December, was officially launched yesterday in the district of Verón Punta Cana, where the aim is to initiate the implementation model that will govern the entire country, taking into account the disproportionate growth experienced by the province of La Altagracia, the main tourist hub of the Dominican Republic.
The process of designing the territorial planning instrument will cost two million pesos, but, socially, the intervention and participation of the district board and the State becomes tens of millions, according to the Vice Minister of Territorial Planning and Regional Development of the Ministry of Economy, Planning and Development (MEPyD), Domingo Matías.
The official said that Verón Punta Cana is a territory that has experienced very rapid growth and it is necessary to start bringing order to this locality in the province of La Altagracia.
Land management involves organizing its resources and preventing people from building wherever and however they want. "Therefore, this will lead to regulations that are binding on all sectors, both private and public.".
The purpose of the law is to establish the regulatory framework for territorial planning, land use, and the formulation and execution of territorial planning plans at the different political-administrative levels, taking into account guidelines of environmental, cultural, economic, social, risk management and sustainable development interest.
Verón is considered a priority area by the authorities, as its tourism potential urgently requires proper planning. "The tourist town is in a state of emergency; it cannot withstand continued uncontrolled urban and territorial growth," the official explained.
The land-use plan has two main objectives: to classify the land, specifying whether it is agricultural, environmental, commercial, tourist, mining, or other types of land; and to classify what is developable and what is not.
Duration
The process of designing the land-use plan will take approximately six months, and ABC Projects, headed by engineer Samuel Abreu, will be responsible for carrying out the initiative. They must submit the designed plan to the Municipal Council for approval within the aforementioned timeframe.
The design will consist of carrying out a survey, a diagnosis of the territorial situation of the area and this part has already been started, the engineer assured.
Following this, they will process this information and take the diagnosis to a citizen participation process, where all sectors will be part of the proposals that will be made.
Together with a multidisciplinary team, they will be carrying out the work, composed especially of specialists of Mexican nationality.
Among the most impactful and critical situations they face, he cites the lack of city infrastructure, meaning that they do not have the basic equipment that the city needs, such as aqueducts, sewers, and the number of schools, hospitals, and public recreation areas.
"If we don't have that, we don't have a city. Our entire focus is on achieving those things and ensuring that the city then has equity in the distribution of the wealth that people generate in this district," he declared.
According to the definition of the Law, Territorial Planning is the State policy that integrates instruments of planning, evaluation, control and participatory management of land use and occupation of the territory, according to its potential and limitations and the expectations of the population, compatible with the conservation, use and management of natural resources and in accordance with the development objectives to improve the quality of life and guarantee collective and diffuse rights.
Adapted with information from Diario Libre.
