Former mayor of Hoyo de Manzanares José Ramón Regueiras (PP) denies having committed prevarication in the processing of a license for the segregation of a plot to build houses next to the Antonio de Nebrija University.
Regueiras and seven former councilors from his previous government team have been indicted for a crime of urban planning prevarication.
Also accused are a municipal surveyor and the former legal advisor of the City Council for the urban planning project under judicial procedure.
The accused will testify next Wednesday, and the trial will extend throughout the week. The former mayor will deny the charges during his appearance.
118 HOUSES
In the first session, the municipal technician who drafted and proposed the segregation project of the plot testified, providing urban planning solutions to make the plan viable within the urban planning regulations.
During preliminary matters, the defenses have denounced the violation of fundamental rights regarding four former councilors, claiming they did not participate in the license concession, so their lawyer has requested their exclusion from the trial.
The case is related to the urban planning project to build 118 houses in the La Berzosa urbanization, in Hoyo de Manzanares, where the Antonio de Nebrija University is located.
The facts were reported by the Public Prosecutor’s Office in 2017, and Ecologists in Action joined the case in 2019 as a popular accusation, arguing that the Property Registry itself suspended the registration of some plots for observing actions contrary to the rights of the urban developer.
PLOT S-49
The developer Universitas Nebrissensis S.A. presented the aforementioned urban planning project to the local administration, intending to segregate 849 square meters from the mother and buildable estate, to transfer it to the City Council with the aim of building a direct connection road with the A-6 highway.
By building a direct access road, a presumed increase in property value was achieved, which could violate the Land Law of the Community of Madrid and the planning regulations of the municipality itself, as it requires a minimum parcel size of 2,000 square meters for redevelopment.
The case was dismissed by the court, but the Madrid Provincial Court ordered its reopening after an appeal by Ecologists in Action was upheld.
Subsequently, the judge considered that there were rational grounds to believe that the mentioned project was outside the current urban planning regulations and that, nevertheless, favorable reports for approval were submitted, which occurred in 2014 by the Governing Board then in place.
In his statement, the prosecutor argues that throughout the investigation, there is no evidence of a collective agreement among all parties involved: private individuals, technicians, and councilors.
«This deduction is exclusively based on the fact that the construction of that road would also benefit the Antonio de Nebrija University as the owner of the plot S-49, sidelining or ignoring the benefit that its execution would bring to the rest of the neighbors, even though the urban planning solution sought was not the most appropriate as has been proven,» he adds.
At the time, Ramón Regueiras stated that the file on these roads began in 2001, long before he or any other member of the government team were in the City Council.
Regarding the land, he explained that it belongs to the University and that, as stated in the previous dismissive ruling of the complaint, the City Council only had to approve access to the 118 houses and promote a road with the aim of avoiding traffic jams at the aforementioned university.
Deja una respuesta