In a new chapter for the troubled development of the waterfront malecon (boardwalk) in San Antonio Tlayacapan, the National Water Commission (Conagua) is slapping Chapala government with a steep fine and threatening partial demolition of the project.
According to Mayor Joaquin Huerta, Conagua recently imposed a 300,000-peso fine on city hall for failure to file progress reports in compliance with terms hashed out with the previous administration. He said the agency agreed to drop the penalty to 100,000 pesos if payment is made by the end of this month.
The project has been riddled with problems since its inception five years ago, principally attributed to waterfront property owners who hold concession titles to adjacent federal land where two segments of the malecon have been constructed.
City hall insiders claim that while most of the landholders approved the project, several have done everything in their power to throw up stumbling blocks due to objections to having a public park located in front of their homes.
Conagua and Profepa (the federal environmental enforcement agency) shut down the project in February 2011, charging municipal government with building in the federal zone without proper permits. Work was resumed later that year following a public meeting held to review the plans, the city’s submission of an environmental impact study and, finally, authorization to proceed issued by Semarnat, the federal environment agency.
Nonetheless, Conagua officials ordered another shutdown in late September 2012, just days prior to the local change of government. The latest impediment concerns the construction of a breakwater, bridge and bird observation deck at the malecon’s eastern leg.
The mayor has promised to cough up the fine, but expressed annoyance that Conagua has been so stringent about a project that benefits the public, in contrast to its lax enforcement regarding illegal construction and fence building carried out in the federal zone by private individuals.