Overlooking Guadalajara, the Cerro del Cuatro is the only public green space that residents of Tlaquepaque, the city’s most polluted municipality, can enjoy.
Since February 2008, the Jalisco Office of Urban Development (Prodeur) has spent 50 million pesos on transforming the hill into a Parque Central, which, at 55 hectares, was set to become the biggest park in the metropolitan zone. Now, a controversial new project to build a University of Guadalajara (UdG) campus on the Cerro del Cuatro is seriously undermining plans for the ecological park.
Easily recognizable by the towering Televia antenna which sits atop the hill, the Cerro del Cuatro is located on the southern outskirts of the city, sandwiched between the Periferico ring road, 8 de Julio, Jesus Reyes Herodes and Gobernador Curiel.
In a meeting on July 11, the Tlaquepaque municipal government agreed unanimously to cancel the Parque Central project in favor of the UdG campus. The decision surprised and angered the local community, which had not been previously consulted.
Prodeur has warned that the decision could be reversed because the Code of Urban Development requires the municipal government to conduct a 30-day public consultation prior to any ruling. However, Ernesto Romero, the Director of Urban Development in Tlaquepaque, has defended the decision, citing Article 10 of the code, which permits the municipal government to approve changes to use of land.
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