Housing lots in protected areas are not allowed

The report published on 06/10/22 by El Mostrador with the title “SMA is launched against real estate projects of the elite to be built in ecological preservation areas” had a considerable impact on informed public opinion.
Well, the Superintendency of the Environment (SMA) did not indicate in that chronicle that its supervisory action was exclusively due to formal complaints entered in its parts office, on different dates for more than 2 years, by Gonzalo Prieto and by who subscribes to this column. Moreover, not only the accusations were made in that environmental service, but also in the municipalities of Lo Barnechea and Colina, in the Seremi of Housing and Urbanism of this megalopolis, in the Comptroller General of the Republic and in the State Defense Council (CDE), for the evident environmental damage caused by the 4 reckless and irresponsible investors who sought capital gains for their rural lands. 
The SMA says that it will oblige the owners of the projects, considered plots of pleasure, under DL 3,516 of 1980, to be submitted to the Environmental Assessment System (SEIA), which is incorrect due to what is peremptorily ordered in article 55 of the General Law of Urbanism and Constructions (LGUC) and in DL 3,516 itself. 
In the Metropolitan Regulatory Plan of Santiago (PRMS) these rural territories, therefore, excluded from urban development, are defined as ecological preservation areas, in which certain and limited activities are allowed, those that must have an Impact Study Environmental to be carried out, as stated in Article 8.3.1.1 of that PRMS, not being possible the lots of residential real estate complexes, which is known by all the actors that develop in the construction business. 
Both Prieto and the undersigned, before the beginning of the pandemic, held interviews with the lawyers of the CDE urging them to exercise their legal powers in the search for respect for Article 51 of Law No. 19,300 on General Bases of the Environment, which refers to environmental damage. The president of the CDE, Juan Antonio Peribonio, fulfilled his role by filing on 24/02/22 a criminal complaint against the legal representatives of the real estate projects Mirador Pie Andino, Hacienda Guay Guay and Proyecto La Cumbre, the 3 in the commune of Colina and the most elegant, called Chaguay, in the commune of Lo Barnechea.
What corresponds now to the SMA is to initiate the sanctioning process against the 4 real estate projects and we make it very clear that only the mayor, Cristóbal Lira, of Lo Barnechea, took seriously the complaints made before him by citizens who understand these things, but who do not maintain relations with the political power. 
This mayor was very well advised by the lawyer Consuelo Herrera, who fulfills functions related to sustainability in that municipality, and before the CDE filed the complaint against the Chaguay project, the competent official had already declared the paralysis of her predatory works of nature. It is worth taking the opportunity to testify that this matter was discussed by this columnist with the former mayor Felipe Guevara, who did not have the necessary time to exercise his authority.

Original source in Spanish