{"id":183,"date":"2010-01-01T18:15:46","date_gmt":"2010-01-01T23:15:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/news\/?p=183"},"modified":"2010-01-09T18:16:58","modified_gmt":"2010-01-09T23:16:58","slug":"coralations-puerto-ricos-planning-lacks-reef-oversight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/news\/2010\/01\/01\/coralations-puerto-ricos-planning-lacks-reef-oversight\/","title":{"rendered":"Coralations: Puerto Rico’s Planning threatens Culebra’s Reef"},"content":{"rendered":"

http:\/\/www.coralations.org\/Planning_Board\/index.html<\/a><\/p>\n

(See Spanish-language version at above link)<\/p>\n

Planning Board of Puerto Rico is proposing radical<\/strong>
\nzoning changes\/redefinitions that pose a threat to Culebra\u2019s Natural Resources and quality of life. <\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

Summary: <\/strong>
\nThe Planning Board is planning radical zoning changes \/ \u201credefinitions\u201d (Reg #4) which will impact the entire island of Puerto Rico, Culebra and Vieques.\u00a0 These radical changes in zoning are proposed in a\u00a0500 page document. We were lucky to find out at this late date that there is a public hearing on Friday, January 25, 2008.\u00a0 The date this was hearing was formally announced is not clear.\u00a0
\nThere are changes proposed in the protective \u201cRO\u201d zoning that Culebra now enjoys.\u00a0 The proposed change in definition would apparently facilitate the urbanization of the island, and would legalize current \u201cillegal\u201d segregations now moving in violation of our protective zoning.\u00a0 We have stopped development for violation of zoning in the past.\u00a0 This could eliminate citizen ability to do this.
\nCulebra projects this may facilitate include the very dense Villa Mi Terru\u00f1o, Playa Zoni (segregation or eco-parque), Playa Clara, Vista Bahia (dense segregation on Mt. Resaca we partially stopped in court.) As we are observing from the segregations now moving in violation of the protective zoning, this will cause irreparable harm to our coastal waters and quality of life.
\nCulebra\u2019s protective zoning is the backbone of Culebra\u2019s coastal zone management plan.\u00a0 It has until the recent onslaught of segregations moving in violation of zoning, protected coastal waters.\u00a0\u00a0 Should this zoning be approved, the Federal funding received by the Coastal Zone Management Program must be evaluated. It could be a concern that Federal funding to protect coastal resources may be abused by Government knowingly supporting special interest development in opposition to public views (albeit not formally solicited) and causing irreparable harm to coastal water quality and Federally protected resources.\u00a0
\nThe radical changes proposed are not limited to the protective \u201cRO\u201d zoning on Culebra, but given our experience on Culebra, this is the only change we at this short notice on which we can comment.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Most disturbing is that the Government of Puerto Rico is apparently attempting to push these dramatic zoning changes through, with no Environmental Impact Study<\/em>. We believe this may be unconstitutional and have referred this to legal experts for evaluation and comment.<\/p>\n

This requires more than a few days review prior to comment.\u00a0 This must be slowed, stopped and reviewed by the people, along with a legitimate Environmental Impact Study. \u00a0\u00a0Culebra is already suffering impacts to coastal waters and personal property from dense segregations moving in violation of protective zoning!\u00a0<\/p>\n

It is our opinion, albeit at this early stage of evaluation, that should this change in RO be approved it will result in dramatic and dense projects, destroy future quality of life, and continue to destroy coastal water quality and resources consistent with what we are observing from current illegal segregations now moving without legitimate local Government oversight or intervention island wide.<\/p>\n

<>< <>< <><<<<<<\/p>\n

About Video<\/p>\n

These changes are apparently\u00a0similar to\u00a0those first proposed
\nfor public hearing\u00a0in June of 2007.\u00a0 Dr. Nelson P\u00e9rez of the Coalici\u00f3n de las Playas
\nPara Todos\u00a0and the late but great Sarah Peisch of Centro de Acci\u00f3n Ambiental\u00a0
\nare interviewed. We are not sure if there are new changes or what has happened
\nsince the hearings in June. The proposed 500 pages of changes requires time to
\nreview.\u00a0 Here is a UTUBE of Nelson expressing concerns about the changes in
\nbeach definition and access, and Sarah Peisch expressing concerns about the radical zoning redefinitions\u00a0 She is still helping…now that is quite a legacy.\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Video Espa\u00f1ol
\nhttp:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=8rqiXtzY-9g<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

http:\/\/www.coralations.org\/Planning_Board\/index.html (See Spanish-language version at above link) Planning Board of Puerto Rico is proposing radical zoning changes\/redefinitions that pose a threat to Culebra\u2019s Natural Resources and quality of life. Summary: The Planning Board is planning radical zoning changes \/ \u201credefinitions\u201d (Reg #4) which will impact the entire island of Puerto Rico, Culebra and Vieques.\u00a0 These … Continue reading Coralations: Puerto Rico’s Planning threatens Culebra’s Reef<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-183","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-posts"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=183"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":186,"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183\/revisions\/186"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=183"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}