On February 3, the Superintendence of the Environment (SMA) filed charges against the Oasis de La Campana Real Estate Company, owner of the “Oasis de La Campana Ecological Reserve” project, located in the Don Bosco Estate S/N°, Ocoa sector, Hijuelas commune, in the Valparaíso Region. The reason: not having the respective environmental permit, in the case of an urban development real estate project that exceeds the threshold of 80 homes. Then the Superintendent of the Environment, Marie Claude Plumer, explained to The Shownr that the formulation of charges against the Real Estate Society Oasis de La Campana “has as its origin citizen complaints of the Board of Neighbors of the sector. The investigation by the investigating prosecutor concluded in the lifting of an infraction classified as very serious, mainly because the company modified the original proposal resulting in a real estate project of urban development that includes construction works and that does not have an Environmental Qualification Resolution in accordance with the regulations that are applicable to it. To this, it is added that the land for sale adjoins and some are located on the La Campana National Park, considered of very high environmental value in the Valparaíso Region. ”
Two weeks later the real estate responded with a civil lawsuit for UF 20,130 ($ 716,000,000) filed by businessman Francisco Moreno Sagredo against one of the directors of the Board of Neighbors of the Oasis de La Campana parcel, Jacqueline Forteza Farías.
The legal action has been interpreted by the neighbors as a retaliation, given that Moreno Sagredo filed it a few days after the SMA made a very serious charge to one of his companies: Inmobiliaria Oasis de La Campana, for which he risks a penalty of up to 10,000 Annual Tax Units, equivalent to more than $ 7,400 million.
The lawsuit accuses Forteza of having carried out actions to discredit and confuse potential buyers of the Lafquén Private Neighborhood, another neighboring lot to Oasis de La Campana, owned by the brothers Francisco and Mauricio Moreno Sagredo, the latter is also a member of the Environmental Advisory Council of the Metropolitan Region.
In addition, they accuse the aforementioned directive of the Board of Neighbors of participating in the installation of “a sign with strange slogans”, a situation that, “in the opinion of the businessman, would have caused that during the last 4 months the real estate could not sell any plot of the Lafquén project, which is why it requests the payment of U.F. 20,130 for alleged damages caused to your company “, explains a statement from the neighbors.
Retaliation and intimidation
Jacqueline Forteza is part of the group of neighbors who in 2022 reported to the SMA that both projects – together totaling about 2,500 plots – had expanded bypassing the Environmental Impact Assessment System. This caused environmental damage to an ecosystem considered a buffer zone of the La Campana-Peñuelas Biosphere Reserve.
“Together, the Oasis de la Campana and Lafquén projects constitute a nucleus of urban development built outside all territorial planning in a rural sector declared a zone of water scarcity and that is part of a World Biosphere Reserve. In recent months these parcels have raised a wide interest because they make up the largest subdivision of the country in a rural area, “say the neighbors.
“That is why last December Mauricio Moreno Sagredo received the Green Wash Award granted by Terram Foundation as “the main reference of real estate entrepreneurs whose projects of ‘ecological neighborhoods’ fragment ecosystems under an advertising mantle of green,” adds the text.
“Anyone who reads this lawsuit realizes that it has no legal basis and being filed against a social leader and environmental defender who is part of our directive and entered after the formalization of charges of the SMA, we can only interpret it as a retaliation and very crude attempt to intimidate against a Board of Neighbors that has dared to denounce them before the environmental authority. The actions of the neighbors of the Oasis de la Campana have always had a peaceful and respectful character. We are confident that in this case the courts and institutions of the State will impose justice and reason, “says the president of the Board of Neighbors of the Oasis of La Campana, Fernando López.
Signs of discord
The director of the Board of Neighbors of the Oasis of La Campana, Paula Leighton, indicates that the neighbors of this parceling for months suffer water cuts without warning, lack of pressure, poor water quality due to the poor maintenance of the supply network and the shortage of water in the wells and the channel from which residents are supplied, situation that was denounced by the press. The company that supplies the water is Aguas Oasis S.A., whose owners are the Moreno brothers themselves.
To publicize this situation, the neighbors installed canvases realizing the scarcity of water, poor quality and high price.
The warnings, says Leighton, “describe three totally demonstrable facts: in January the company Aguas Oasis, whose legal representative is Francisco Moreno himself, announced increases of between 150 and 1400% in its rates; The company indicated that given the drought it cannot guarantee future supply and as of January of this year accumulates sanitary summaries for deficiencies in the quality of its water, among other charges. ”
The local municipality itself endorsed and joined these warnings by putting on the access roads to both parcels three signs that indicate: “Zone of water scarcity and environmental protection. Before buying a property or building a home, check with the Department of Works and the Environmental Unit of the Municipality of Hijuelas.”
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