The director of Urban Development and Environment of Puerto Vallarta, Adriana Guzmán Jiménez, has confirmed that work on the construction of an apartment tower on the corner of Aguacate and Lázaro Cárdenas has already resumed, with the withdrawal of the closure seals the Federal Environmental Protection Agency (Profepa) of the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources in Jalisco (Semarnat) had put up.

Residents of the Emiliano Zapata neighborhood had been dissatisfied with the construction of a nine-story building in front of the emblematic temple of the Holy Cross, whose tower would no longer be visible. They considered it an attack on the image of this typical neighborhood, which is also a tourist attraction, so they undertook a legal fight arguing “Right to Culture,” in addition to other effects on basic services and parking.

Even the priest Esteban Salazar González, parish priest of Santa Cruz, at the time expressed his concern about this threat to the environment. Where there used to be a colonial-style mansion, today a building now stands, whose license number is 3755/21 and was granted on September 28, 2021, in the last week of the municipal administration of the Citizen Movement.

Guzmán said, “It is one of the buildings that Profepa closed for the reason that they did not have their federal MIA, according to Semarnat, because it is within the Coastal Environment. We know that there was a resolution from a judge of the Federal Court of Administrative Justice. The ruling was issued that the seals be lifted.

“Profepa does not inform us of the closure of the property. In this case, we have not yet received from Profepa, or the court, the knowledge that the seals are lifted. However, during the tour the City Hall inspectors came, since they informed us that they were already working, and they showed us the judge’s ruling so they could continue.”

It is a nine-level, vertical multi-family housing construction with an area of ​​507 square meters, and 4,494 meters to be built, which includes a basement, six floors, plus terraces, pergola, and pool. It is owned by Desire Constructions.

Guzmán said that this work has the documents required at the municipal level, so they currently have a license that expires in July 2024. The municipal official stated that Semarnat considers that all of Vallarta is in a coastal environment, regardless of whether it is in an urban area.

She continued, “We are in negotiations with Semarnat to reach the delimitation, because the LEGEEPA (General Law of Ecological Balance and Environmental Protection) says that the three levels of government: federal, state and municipal, must carry out a delimitation of the zone of the coastal environment. So, right now we are working and in talks with the federation to be the first municipality that would delimit its coastal environment zone, and specifically will say which ones will need a municipal, state, or federal environmental impact statement.”