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 Puerto Vallarta Real Estate | March 2007 
San Miguel de Allende Residents Protest Parking Garage
 Bob Kelly - Herald Mexico
SAN MIGUEL DE ALLENDE, Gto. - Dozens of Mexican and foreign protesters marched Saturday against a five-story parking garage in the heart of the Historic District here.
Upon arriving at the construction site, the 43 demonstrators met with a spirited defense of the project by the president of the influential architects´ association.
Basta Ya, the most vocal of 11 protest groups formed recently, organized the march from the Jardín Principal to the site two blocks away at Insurgentes and Hidalgo where the garage will hold 290 cars when completed.
Although excavation at the site apparently caused an adjoining wall along the staff parking lot for the General Hospital to collapse Feb. 1, officials for the city and for the National Anthropology Institute (INAH) have refused to order a halt to construction.
Basta Ya claims the height of the garage will exceed the 8.5 meters allowed by the city´s building code and is not in keeping with the colonial heritage of the Historic District.
The previous city administration, however, amended the code to allow exceptions to the height requirement, said César Arias, an environmental activist and member of the Patrimony Commission that advises the city on development.
INAH can stop construction because the building doesn´t conform to the city´s architectural heritage, but has declined to act, says Ricardo Vidargas, a member of Basta Ya and an architectural photographer in New York who also lives in San Miguel.
"It´s amazing the El Caracol condominium towers, which are outside the Historic District, were changed because they didn´t reflect the colonial style but this parking garage can be built in the central district," he said.
Raúl Barrera, president of the college of architects, told protesters the garage would help relieve the traffic congestion choking the district.
A facade with a colonial motif will block the view of the garage from the street, he added.
Barrera earlier had won praise from residents for persuading the El Caracol developers to accept a redesign that blends in with the hilly terrain of the site and has colonial influences.
The stark design of the original condominium towers sparked the start of the protest movement last November. Basta Ya organized a Jan. 18 march to the site that prompted the city to suspend the building permit. |
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