Intervention of the Built Cultural Heritage in Guadalajara, Jalisco.
In several municipalities, the Partial Plans for Urban Development (hereinafter PPDU) protect the Built Cultural Heritage, such is the case of Guadalajara, Jalisco, México where there are so-called Perimeters A and B of the Built Cultural Heritage[1].
First of all, we must understand Cultural Heritage as the material and immaterial elements and manifestations of human activity and the natural environment, to which the inhabitants of the entity, due to their significance and value, attribute intellectual, scientific, technological, historical, natural, literary, artistic, archeological, anthropological, paleontological, ethnological, architectural, industrial and urban importance.
In that sense, the PPDU classifies, according to their characteristics, the properties that are part of the Cultural Heritage as follows (I) Properties of Relevant Artistic Value. Buildings of public or private property built after 1900, according to the following criteria: (a) They represent an example of a certain stylistic current; (b) They constitute a creation of quality, unique or atypical within an urban context; (c) They are distinguished by their quality of composition, design or architectural execution; (d) They present a degree of innovation in terms of design, materials or techniques used; (II) Buildings of Environmental Value: buildings that possess a contextual value or urban environment that together generate an area susceptible of being considered of heritage value, subdivided into two categories: (a) Buildings of historical environmental value built before 1900; and (b) Buildings of artistic environmental value built after 1900; among other classifications and criteria.
Now, the PPDU, seen as the legal ordinance that regulates construction standards (what may or may not be built on a given property), establishes the applicable technical criteria for conservation and restoration in order to standardize the characteristics of all the properties that make up the Cultural Heritage in the Heritage Protection Perimeters, as well as the incorporation of new elements and the urban-architectural integration to the context.
For the above, the PPDU in force for the municipality of Guadalajara, Jalisco, México in addition to the “general” Construction Standards (some examples of some of the standards that we call “general” are: height, land occupation coefficient, land use coefficient, housing splitting, lateral, rear and front restrictions, etc), contemplates an Urbanistic Norm named “Of the Conservation of the Built Cultural Heritage” that regulate additional limitations / restrictions regarding the intervention of the Property, as it contains various technical criteria applicable in addition to the “general” rules of conservation and restoration to standardize the characteristics of all the properties that make up the Cultural Heritage in the Perimeters of Heritage Protection, as well as the incorporation of new elements and the urban-architectural integration to the context.
In this sense, when considering any type of real estate project on a property that is part of the Built Cultural Heritage, within the previous due diligence that must be carried out, it would be necessary to conclude on the additional Construction Standards applicable to the project and thus be able to justify technically - urbanistically the intended project.
In the Firm we have successfully advised several real estate projects with Tourist, Residential and Mixed Uses in heritage protection zones.
Contact us.
Gerardo Torres González [email protected] Luis Andrés Aceves de la Cruz [email protected]
[1] These perimeters are not all the areas where the protection of the built heritage exists.