After more than four months, the 7th Civil Court of Santiago took a precautionary measure and temporarily suspended the instructions of the Ministry of Agriculture through which it ordered the Agricultural and Livestock Service (SAG) to stop authorizing subdivisions that might be for real estate purposes.
With this, the court opened a lawsuit between the portfolio and Chile Rural, a union of parceleros that filed the complaint, accusing that the Government was taking powers that correspond to Congress.
The answer was immediate. This Wednesday, the State Defense Council (CDE) filed an appeal for reversal to nullify the suspension of the circular.
Among its reasons, the agency argued that “the administrative authority was not allowed to present rebuttal arguments” and that the preliminary ruling should be requested prior to the lawsuit.
On the other hand, the CDE warned that “the precautionary measure might generate very serious damages that exceed the hypothetical and unproven risk that is sought to be avoided.”
With this, the Council alluded to the environmental impact of subdivisions: “There is no doubt that allowing uncontrolled urban expansion through real estate developments in agricultural areas generates an enormous risk of severe damage to the environment and serious problems for the population.” .
Thus, the Council listed effects such as the massification of an irregular real estate model and without urban planning, unplanned horizontal expansion and collapse of the infrastructure.
The CDE also argued that the measure is inconsistent with the Supreme Court ruling that prohibited the sale of land from the Punta Puertecillo project (in Litueche, O’Higgins Region) and that fined Jorge Gálmez’s real estate company $3.65 billion, owner of Mall Sport, who was promoting it.
“In complete harmony with the measures adopted by the SAG, the highest court determined that the project was not actually a subdivision of a rustic property, but rather constituted an urban development that should have been submitted to environmental evaluation,” the state agency said.
