In a clear rejection of the predatory real estate development practices that have radically altered Cotacachi over the last five years, the Municipal government has outlawed all future construction of gated community-style developments.
Spurred by dozens of complaints from residents of the city, indigenous communities (especially El Batán where the biggest concentration of gringo mansions are located), and a formal letter signed by all ten presidents of the Parroquia of Apuela in Íntag, the municipal government suspended all constructionofconjuntosprivados (current and future) in early 2012, while the new Plan de Desarrollo y de Ordenamiento Territorial del Cantón Cotacachi was being elaborated. This county-wide development plan was release in May of 2012 and states that the following activities are no longer permitted in the City of Cotacachi, surrounding communities, and the Íntag sub-tropical zone:
Construcción de urbanizaciones, complejos turisticos, planes urbanizacionales
and
El tamaño mínimo de los lotes para la zona será de 2000 m2…
For those of you who don’t read en Español, what this means is the legal impossibility of the further development of housing developments in Cotacachi, surrounding communities, and the Zona de Íntag.
After years of complaints from locals regarding skyrocketing land prices, lack of planning for water and basic services, culturally insensitive conflicts surrounding livestock and living styles, etc., the Municipio has finally acted decisively to prevent Cotacachi from becoming another Vilcabamba (a beautiful town colonized by Americans who control the local economy and create their own new-agey exclusive sub-culture).
Speaking of which, many of Cotacachi’s recent transplants still insist the world is ending in December based on the culturally transformed idea that a Mayan prophecy predicts it. Maybe for the spiritually enlightened real estate peddlers the end has truly arrived!
In the last few months, cultural conflict has been especially strong in El Batán where the gringo mansions have taken away irrigation water and the new residents havearmed law suits because they don’t like to hear their neighbors roosters crow! Why move to another country if you want everything to be like where you are from. Isn’t this cultural imperialism? I recently heard an American man yelling at the women working in the bank because she couldn’t speak English! In a recent community meeting in El Batán a “no more gringos” policy was discussed.
Finally, in Íntag many community leaders are permitting themselves a sigh of relief. It is common knowledge that the real estate peddlers have targeted the region as a next paradise to develop for foreigners as soon as the new road is paved. With gringos already distorting the local economy by paying up to twenty times the market value for land, communities are unanimously dedicated to prevent the negative cultural, economic, and environmental effects that have so quickly transformed life close to Cotacachi. Many communities are incorporating new rules into their bylaws stating that any land sale to a foreigner must be approved by the community government.
Now Íntag has the legal backing to control its own development vision instead of having it be imposed by foreigners like in El Batán.