Profepa ordered to make sure illegal Tulum condo building is torn down

The Federal Attorney’s Office for Environmental Protection (Profepa) has been ordered to guarantee full environmental restoration at a shuttered construction site in the Caribbean resort city of Tulum.

An Aug. 14 federal court ruling requires Profepa to ensure the so-called Adamar condominium is fully demolished and that the 731 square meters of affected land is restored to its natural state. 

unfinished building
Tulum residents and visitors no doubt find the condemned building hard to miss, given its prominent place in lush surroundings. (DMAS/Facebook)

Profepa must also collect 1.4 million pesos (US $74,370) in outstanding fines from the developer.

The ruling reportedly stemmed from a legal complaint filed by a Tulum resident against Profepa “for failing to comply with a ruling ordering they ensure the site is returned to its original state.”

A June court decision had so ordered and at the time, Profepa director Mariana Boy said her agency was “committed to reversing damage caused by real estate developments that are built without proper environmental impact or land use change authorization.” 

As the weeks went by and restoration activities were not in evidence, the complaint against Profepa was filed.

In arguing its case, Profepa claimed it had fulfilled the requirements of that ruling. In actuality, it had only stopped the construction and the court declared Profepa had improperly delegated compliance to the real estate company without conducting any verification.

Instead of tearing down the illegal building, the developer sought to rescue the project, a seven-story structure that would feature 24 apartments and penthouses just south of the Xcacel Xcacelito Sea Turtle Sanctuary.

The developer requested permission to carry out an environmental impact study that should have been processed before the project began. Semarnat denied the permit request.

Profepa now has 10 days to appeal, but it is unlikely to win should it do so since both rulings were explicit.

Instead, a demolition request will have to be obtained from the Environment Ministry (Semarnat) and the remaining structure will have to be torn down and the lot completely cleared. Then, the environmental damage must be reversed and full restoration must be brought about in order to adhere to the terms of the June ruling.

With regard to the fine Profepa has been ordered to collect, Boy acknowledged that such penalties are no longer a deterrent since developers typically incorporate them into their financial projections.

Mónica Huerta, an attorney with the Association for the Right to a Healthy Environment (DMAS), celebrated last week’s ruling for safeguarding the collective interest of the public and ensuring that any citizen can access the protection of the courts.

“This ruling reminds us that access to a healthy environment is a right and the State is obligated to guarantee it for future generations, as well as for existing generations,” she said.

DMAS filed the complaint that halted the illegal construction project, which had been a target of activists for more than a year.

Before the condominium project was finally shuttered in June, the developer ignored two legal injunctions to temporarily halt construction — the second issued in February — according to the newspaper El Quintanarroense.

With reports from El Quintanarroense, La Jornada, El Punto sobre la i, Riviera Maya News and El Economista

The post Profepa ordered to make sure illegal Tulum condo building is torn down appeared first on Mexico News Daily



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