Federal Judge Voids La Paz PDU for Todos Santos

Milena Romero and Roberto Soto tried to replace the Todos Santos PDU our community created over a decade ago with one of their own falsely claiming it was just an “update” to our existing plan and their plan was sustainable.

From the very beginning there was fierce community opposition to their plan including a protest in the town square, community comments submitted outlining its many flaws and regulatory violations and 1,200 resident signatures opposing it. But Milena and Roberto sold the plan to the city council who voted to approve it, and it was published on February 5th violating court orders due to the two active lawsuits against it over the creation process not involving the local community.

Fortunately, we were saved by a federal judge who agreed with the Ejido of Todos Santos that the development process was flawed, and the judge voided their plan. As a result, our current community developed PDU remains in effect until if and when a new one is prepared.

Hopefully, after this shameful and willful disregard for the desires of the people of Todos Santos, Milena will allow us, without their interference, to update our existing plan to bring it into compliance with the current state and federal regulations enacted after our plan was approved.

It should be noted that the municipality for the past decade has not invested in any of the water, power or wastewater infrastructure called for in our existing PDU. They have simply taken our tax dollars and spent them on their own projects. We really have no idea where our money is going.

It should also be noted that for the past 5 years when legitimate complaints were filed against illegal construction projects that violated our PDU, the complaints were simply ignored by the municipality, and projects were allowed to be completed. Cerritos Beach is a perfect example. There 80% of the construction is illegal condo projects which continue to be built to this day.

Here is What We Want in a New Development Plan

The court ruling has taken the power the municipality thought they had and rightfully returned it to our community, and we plan on exercising that right.

Our most important requirements are that the plan is sustainable, protects the beauty and natural resources of our community and provides the desperately needed investment in infrastructure.

The laws any new PDU must comply with include the General Law of Human Settlements and Environmental Protection summarized here and the recent ruling by the Supreme Court of Mexico summarized here.

IN ADDITION TO FULL COMPLIANCE WITH THE LAW, THIS IS WHAT WE WANT IN OUR UPDATED PDU:

1. Per federal law, the first step of the PDU development process must be risk assessments for water, power, and wastewater along with environmental impact statements on the proposed projects submitted to residents.

2. It must protect our historic pueblo. We will not allow the bucolic and unique environment of our region to be strangled by congestion, unsustainable growth, inadequate infrastructure, the over-extraction of our aquifers and constant power outages.

3. It cannot change any of our current zoning rules including minimum lot sizes, limits on building heights, and the allowable building area on the lot.

4. It must provide for the local Mexican population that has been priced out of their own community. We need to make sure affordable housing becomes a reality.

5. It must limit growth to 25,000 people as our current PDU does.

6. It must not allow condominiums and apartment complexes to be built in single-family home only areas outside of town.

7. It cannot allow large hotels to be built, only 2-story Eco Resorts with a limit of 10 rooms per hectare of land.

8. It must create the Citizen Oversight Committee that was required by our current plan but never formed.

9. It must protect our beaches, dunes, arroyos, aquifers, lagoons and oasis from development.

10. It must include significant fines and penalties for violators of the PDU including government officials who issue illegal permits and contractors and architects who design and construct illegal projects.

11. It must ensure citizen complaints regarding illegal projects in their neighborhood are responded to immediately, instead of being simply ignored as they have in the past.

The people of the Todos Santos region deserve much better treatment than we have received over the years from the municipality. We have very grave concerns that must be addressed.

• We are worried about running out of water

• We are tired of the brownouts and blackouts and uneven voltage that destroys pumps and appliances all summer long.

• We are tired of the frequent fires at our landfill releasing toxic smoke into the air we breathe.

It would be wonderful if we could be self-governing and have access to the money we are paying to CFE, OMSAPA and in property taxes to spend in Todos Santos. Maybe someday the dream of becoming our own municipality will become a reality. But until then we will fight for our community, fight for our water, fight for our environment and fight for our rights under the law.

But for now we thank the federal court for stopping this illegal effort to turn our community over to developers that would have resulted in the destruction of beauty and uniqueness of Todos Santos.