A controversial ordinance passed by the National District city council, which designates the capital city’s La Fe neighborhood as a special land use zone, is facing opposition due to concerns that it violates Law 368-22 on Territorial Planning, Land Use and Human Settlements. This law removed the power of municipalities to make such decisions independently, El Dia reports.
The ruling Modern Revolutionary Party (PRM) Mayor Carolina Mejia city government has been aggressive in favoring residential and commercial developments in the city, disregarding issues such as parking and traffic congestion, sewage and water supplies. Ruling party councillors are in the majority in the City Council.
The concern regarding La Fe, in the northern area of the capital city, is that the Quisqueya Ball Park is a focal point in the area and the activities at the capital city’s stadium conflict with the new proposed residential and commercial developments. In 2019, a group of architects proposed converting the Quisqueya into a Major League Baseball-certified stadium. Meanwhile, the stadium is the largest baseball park in the country and home to the Escogido and Licey winter baseball teams.
Waldys Taveras, a municipal advisor, and Nerys Martínez, a city councilor for the opposition Fuerza del Pueblo party, have downplayed the initiative proposed to the City Council by the Development and Export Bank (Bandex) and Bienes Nacionales of the government. These entities seek to develop commercial and residential projects. They say they want to promote sustainable territorial planning in the area.
“Regardless of what they are going to build in that polygon, it had to have the approval of the Ministry of Economy, Planning and Development, and although I do not agree that this entity replaces a competence of the municipalities, the law so provides,” Taveras comments when highlighting that the councilors are violating the law.
He added that it is not prudent to comment on the plan before the report from the aforementioned Ministry is available, as the regulations have not yet been determined, where the commercial plazas would be located, nor how they will guarantee services in the event of implementing any urban project.
Taveras acknowledges that cities change constantly, but as this occurs, the entities in charge must disclose aspects of how to manage, for example, sewage, where to park vehicles, among others.
In addition to complaining and abandoning the extraordinary session in which councillors approved the ordinance last Friday, 8 February 2025, alleging that there was no consensus, Nerys Martínez opposed it because it includes the declaration of special use of the land of the Quisqueya Stadium.
“I do not agree that a non-developable polygon such as the Quisqueya should be urbanized, because after it has been urbanized, the residents will be bothered by the ball games,” she highlights.
Martínez said that in the case of the Quisqueya Stadium, there was a lack of consensus from residents and the Ministry of Sports.
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El Dia
12 February 2025