Cancun, Q.R. — The Cancun, Puerto Morelos and Isla Mujeres Hotel Association have objected the challenge of Cancun’s Urban Development Program. Last week, the Fifth District Court in Quintana Roo ordered the municipal government of Cancun to annul the Urban Development Program (PDU 2022).
The order was made based on various human rights violations of the Mexican Constitution. The city was instructed to replace its formulation guaranteeing citizen participation, however, the mayor is challenging the judicial ruling.
Since that announcement, businesses including the Hotel Association are demanding compliance with the ruling. The Cancun, Puerto Morelos and Isla Mujeres Hotel Association have even gone as far as to send a letter to President Andrés Manuel López Obrador asking him to intervene.
They are hoping his intervention will prevent municipal authorities from insisting on the implementation of an urban development plan that proposes greater building density in the hotel zone.
The PUD in question was brought in by the last outgoing administration, which was when Latifa Musa Cardona held office while Mara Lezama ran for governor.
According to the letter signed by the president of the hoteliers association, Jesús Almaguer Salazar, the approval of this PDU would have serious detrimental effects for Cancun as a tourist destination.
The PDU contemplates the construction of around 1,600 homes and 300 commercial premises in the Pok Ta Pok golf course, a proposal that hoteliers consider unacceptable and one that seriously threatens the sustainability of the city.
They warn about the increase in the saturation of the drainage and sewage systems, which could lead to the collapse of the hotel zone and the contamination of the Nichupte Lagoon with wastewater from sewers and hotel establishments.
In addition, they point out the risk of excessive demand for services on Boulevard Kukulcán and the negative impact on the vacation rental market, among other disadvantages and damages.
In April, Pok Ta Pok residents and city businessmen voiced their concerns and rejection of a construction project proposal by a Mexico City company who wants to build on the golf course.