Tepalo Project UPDATE

Received this morning from a friend who went to the meeting last night at Plaza Montaña:

There is a lot more information now available and a path forward.

1. There are plans to build eight towers (condos/apartments) from roughly Revolution to Rancho del Oro.
2. The developers are from Peru and Colombia.
3. Ajijic is only part of the project. They have several towers planned for Zapopan as well. They have elaborate scale models.
4. They are already pre-selling these units with financial backing from the US.
5. The State of Jalisco has approved the project.
6. Work has begun to put support in place to do the project. (electrical, staging for equipment etc.)
7. The group is hiring environmental lawyers from Mexico City to put an injunction in place. Cost for lawyers is 200,000 pesos. Money will have to be raised.
8. The way I understand it, the bribes have all been paid, but the lawyers are confident they can stop it for now with federal injunctions until impact studies are completed.

That is the basic details of the meeting.

Contacted Lina this morning who said this when I asked if a RP can sign the petition:

Yes you can and if you can post on facebook that tomorrow in the plaza there will be people taking signatures. You need to bring a copy of your ID, permanente, temporal, and a copy of proof of residence (CFE telmex) to the plaza between 8 am and 10:30 during the race.

Thanks, this is important they are already building roads for 8 towers.

Lina Doyle

A cautionary word: lawyers will nearly always tell you they can accomplish something, even when they know it's extremely unlikely. That pile of pesos for their services is tempting and can cause undue optimism. From what you've said, it looks bad for stopping the project at this point.

I agree, Gringal, but I'm willing to risk 500 pesos. It does look bad for us.

Where will the access be from?

Anybody seen roadwork north of the carretera (mountainside) in Ajijic?

mexbound wrote:I live in Rancho Del Oro and there has been no activity that I have seen.

Good.

This is a long term project so they will need one tower at a time, the first one close to a road and will keep going if people buy or they will abandon the project if it does not work.. Just because there is no work being done now does nt mean that there will not be any.

Or, perhaps they will "pre-sell", to the gullible, half of what they need to build the first tower, collect the deposits/down payments, and then vanish.
Pretty pictures.........

I went to sign in opposition today. (What else can I do?....kvetch on a message board?) I'm as cynical as anybody, but I do like to hold onto a thread of hope that with enough resistance, bad ideas can be stopped.

My understanding was they'd be collecting signatures til 11am, but they were still gathering more at 12....and still going at 1pm before I left the area.

Will there be other opportunities for people to sign the petition?

I'd really love to sign but need a place to sign that is close to parking as I do not live in Ajijic centro. WalMart parking lot or Centro Laguna would be good.

JB, I just asked Lina and will post her response.

This is a project that will impact the whole area, the petition should be available in the Joco plaza, the Chapala plaza, and, as you say, WM parking lot. Not just in the Ajijic plaza Sunday from 8 to 12.

Don't want to sound pessimist but this entire area is already pretty much "impacted". Nevertheless I hope this project can be canceled.

I wonder how much the previous Presidente or Mayor made from this. Also a possibility the present one may be in the picture. This project is a real threat and could be the sign of things to come.

I think they are operating on a higher level of approval than local presidentes de municipios.

slainte39 wrote:I think they are operating on a higher level of approval than local presidentes de municipios.

And I think that's worth repeating.

Will there be another opportunity to sign, I know of some who were not able to on Sunday, myself included.

itsme

Send me you can pass around and your e-mail via pm and I will send you a signing sheet and the address of where to drop it off.
There are two types of sheets going around. One for Mexican citizens where you need to give your INE # and one for foregners that is more sheet of people who are oposing the project for info only. The one for Mexican citizen is a regular petition.