The Campeche Heritage Authority sees the need to legislate and exempt owners from taxes to repair them; so far, they have detected 29 houses at risk.
Among the projects for the conservation of historic houses in the capital, the Heritage Authority considers proposing to the Legislative Power an initiative to exempt owners from taxes, among other fiscal benefits, and to expand the census of the state of buildings in traditional neighborhoods, announced the director of the organization, Rosa del Carmen Olvera Salinas, specifying that there are only 26 houses in poor condition in the Historic Center.
Recently, a house in Santa Ana collapsed due to the owners’ neglect in maintaining it. Previously, there was a similar case on 10th Street between 57 and 59 in the walled area, emphasizing that they should not cause fatal accidents to solve this problem.
Olvera Salinas reiterated that abandonment should not be reached, so the houses must be intervened, and added that the Civil Protection Secretariat already has an advance in the inventory of properties at risk due to their critical state, for which there must be coordination in government agencies for their solution.
She emphasized the importance of citizens being aware of how to take care of their property and when they start having problems, they should approach the Heritage Authority to find the means to preserve it for its historical value.
That is why, she said, they are considering proposing to the new Legislature a regulation that allows solving the problem of the abandonment of colonial houses and the risk of them continuing to collapse, although she clarified that there must be co-responsibility on the part of the owner to prevent their house from falling.
“We also need to create mechanisms because these citizens do not have the economic means to keep their houses in good condition.” Additionally, she continued, ties must be established between the authorities and the citizens for the conservation of all properties that are in a vulnerable situation. She specified that they currently only have a census of 26 houses at risk of collapsing in the Historic Center of the capital. She also acknowledged that there is no census of traditional neighborhoods; however, she reported that they began data collection starting from the San Román church and the areas surrounding the park, and they will cross all of 12th Street to reach Comercio Street and end at San Francisco.
The official added that by crossing the Historic Center and forming part of the axes of each neighborhood, both San Román and Guadalupe and San Francisco, they will take the census to determine the conditions of the houses, so she said, “now we will have to do the censuses to know the conditions of these houses.”
When asked about expropriation as a measure for the conservation of properties, she ruled out this action, stating that they should not take these routes but rather support people and intervene in architectural spaces before they reach the vulnerable states they are in.
Therefore, she reiterated that creating support mechanisms, which can be through the State Congress, such as exempting taxes, or that properties enter special programs or with the support of civil associations, depends on the particularity of each house, but without taking away the owners’ property.
Source: Por Esto
