Social organizations and neighborhood associations held a press conference recounting details regarding the non-compliance of the project Whale Point in the department of Maldonado, ensuring that the initiative does not comply with the land use law.
During the exhibition, the architect and member of the Movement No to the Punta Ballena Project, Isabel Gadino, He assured that they made a request for access to public information since they understood that the project violated Law 18,308 of Territorial Planning and Sustainable Development, which has been in force since 2008.
The architect assured that “these data did not appear in the entire environmental evaluation process,” in a conversation with Subrayado. Meanwhile, Gadino stressed that “any subdivision on the coastline has to leave 150 meters free from the line inwards” and that the issue was cleared up in a public hearing with the Ministry of the Environment.
“According to the data we have access to, this land has remained the same since 1944, with the same division. (Now) a new division is being proposed that requires compliance with current legislation,” he said.
While, Fernando Niggemeyermember of the movement No to the Punta Ballena Project, said that they communicated with the Ministry of Environment “requesting that the project comply with the land use law.”
Irreversible changes
Earlier this year, a group of experts from the Eastern Regional University Center (CURE) and the Agronomy faculty They published a report on the biological and geological importance of Whale Pointwhich is threatened by the real estate project.
The title of the study is “Flora & Vegetation of Punta Ballena. An invaluable natural heritage at risk of extinction” and it was created by a group of experts who studied the possible consequences that would be generated by Real estate project – which is also strongly opposed by local residents – in the natural area.
“The site forms a unique coastal landscape in the country, characterized by its rocky cliff, the southern end of the Sierra Ballena Shear, originated 530 million years ago,” highlights the study published by the specialized digital magazine, Ambienta.
On the other hand, the study adds that Whale Point It has a good state of conservation, a high diversity of terrestrial and marine flora and fauna species, as well as cultural factors linked to prehistoric, historical and current uses “that society considers of vital importance.”
From the University Center it establishes that the effects on the landscape will be irreversible since the attributes that define it will be modified: “its geomorphology and link with the sea, its vegetation and current public use, which make it a national and international landscape icon.”
On the other hand, they establish that the scope of the government’s evaluation of the possible impacts is limited only to the locality and that “the effects completely transcend that scale.”
“Whale Point It is located in a territory where there are historical and cultural processes linked to tourism development that are more than a hundred years old, and is currently part of one of the most visited tourist destinations in season, such as Punta del Este,” the report recalls.
In this regard, he stressed that “the quality of the tourist experience of visitors will be negatively affected” and recalled that the project is highly criticized by the community.
Source: Ambito
