Revolutionizing La Yacata

This month, the idea is to invite those from the office of Desarrollo Urbano (sort of the zoning office) to La Yacata and plead our case. They are one of the powers that be that are holding up progress in our quest for water, electricity and sewer construction. Currently, the 680 lots in La Yacata are zoned as “rustico” not habitable in other words. And those of us that live there, as well as the other property owners, wish it to be rezoned as habitable. This would free the all mighty “cambio de uso de suelo” permit (change of use) which would allow us then to apply for the above-mentioned services. There are, of course, other requirements that we need to comply with, but this would be that which would enable us to apply for several of the others.

We have had quite the run around with this process. First, they wished us to oust the long-time person in charge (whose name happens to be, ironically enough, Jesus, pronounced HEY-seus) in order to grant our request. Well, we were successful in that revolution, yet the promised permit did not materialize.

Note:  For future posts, I will use the nickname Chuchi for Jesus so that these posts, which have nothing to do with religion, are not misinterpreted.

Then, there was the problem of distance from town. The committee said our lands were too far to be connected to the main lines. And they would not approve self-contained systems even though Caricheo, Las Peñas, Pamaceo and La Ordeña (communities further on down the road) all have self-contained systems. This problem should be resolved now that as of December 2012, water, sewer, and electric lines have finally reached the outermost section of Moroleón, which is a mere 2 kilometers from us.

Then there was the problem of inner unity. With so many shareholders it has been very difficult for everyone to agree or for that matter, identify those that are part of the association and those that aren’t.

Well, Jesus took care of that little problem this past year as well, with a set of lawsuits against the “colonia”. In order to answer these preposterous charges, we (meaning me and Super Prez) had to organize a detailed list of names and addresses of all those who own lots in La Yacata.

It has taken us nearly 8 months, but we have 80 percent of the owners identified. Then we had to go one step further and ask for a cooperación (donation although not voluntarily given) of $250 per lot in order to pay the lawyers for the association’s defense.

We have successfully answered the first lawsuit which came from the guy who drilled a hole intending for it to be a well for the community and have placed a counter-suit in order to recover that which was spent in the endeavor.

The second lawsuit, directly from Chuchi, over a water rights certificate that he does not have in his possession, is still under debate. We have been waiting nearly 2 months for the neutral surveyor to come to La Yacata and decide which of the 2 sides is in the right (which is us of course) and for the judge then to declare his ruling. Unfortunately, we had the long Christmas vacation to contend with and this month is the celebration of Moroleón, which guarantees that little progress will be made anytime soon.

Anyway, all these meetings and petitions and radio announcements and newspaper ads trying to locate property owners has created a sense of unity not seen since the community was founded nearly 20 years ago.

So we hope to have a sort of picnic or cookout or potluck or SOMETHING when the members of the zoning committee come, demonstrating our unity so that we too can progress into the 20th century.

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