the sidewalk replacement work on 7/s avenue. casali
The controversy that revolves around the sidewalks of the center of La Plata raised more temperature this weekend. It is that the protectionists denounced before the Justice that the Municipality is not complying with the order that provides for the interruption of the work on Avenida 7.
As EL DIA published last week, the Lanús Administrative Litigation Court, which is the one on duty, lifted the judicial fair to order a halt to the sidewalk renovation work that the Commune is carrying out on Avenida 7. It is because a group of protectionist neighbors came out against the replacement of tiles that, they say, does not correspond to the regulations by ordinance.
At the end of last year, the Municipality began a sidewalk renovation plan in the center of the City, which is concentrated on Avenida 7, between 44 and 60. And, instead of placing the traditional 20 by 20 centimeter tiles and their characteristic format, removed the existing ones to put white tiles, which have twice the surface.
A group of neighbors led by Efraín Prat, a local urban architect, appeared, then, in Justice. In their presentation, they affirm that the model of tiles that the Municipality is placing – the same one that is used for the sidewalks of the City of Buenos Aires – is not the one that corresponds, according to the current ordinances.
They refer, among others, to ordinances 10,681 and 12,240. The first corresponds to the Building Code of La Plata, sanctioned in 2010, and the second, to a relaxation to encourage front-builders to repair their sidewalks, and which establishes the use of tiles other than traditional ones only in exceptional cases. This last norm was voted by the Deliberative Council in 2022 and makes it possible to advance with materials different from those traditionally provided, only if the sidewalk has already been previously intervened.
The plaintiffs made the initial presentation on December 22 in the Contentious Administrative Court No. 2 of La Plata, in charge of María Ventura Martínez. The judge ordered the request for a series of reports that the Municipality can deliver until February 2, because on December 31 the summer fair began in ordinary Justice.
With the judicial conflict unleashed but interrupted, the plaintiffs considered that, if the works continue during January, when judicial activity resumes, the patrimonial paths in question would have already been irretrievably removed.
This was explained to EL DIA by the lawyer sponsoring the case, José Martocci, who remarked that the group’s concern is for the tiles in Plaza San Martín and the Legislature building, both heritage sites of the City.
For this reason, the group went to the court of duty, the Contentious Court No. 1 of Lanús, in charge of Maximiliano Ceballos, where the interruption of the work was ordered until ordinary activity resumed. But, they denounced, the works continued on Friday disobeying the order, for which the plaintiff demanded its compliance and stopped the progress on the patrimonial paths until the matter was resolved.
“The Municipality itself is breaking the ordinances issued by its Council and now, also, the order of the Justice that ordered the interruption of the work,” Martocci complained.
Last week the work reached the height of the Dardo Rocha passage. In the brief presented before the court on duty, the lawyer denounced the intervention of the La Plata Commune in the tiles of the Legislature, where those that, he considers, are “illegal” are installed.
Consulted by EL DIA, from the municipality they affirmed that the work that was carried out on Friday was aimed at “avoiding accidents”, and they assured that as of today they will be stopped until the Justice orders it.
The suspension was aimed at preventing the debate from being resolved with the fait accompli
