Councilor of the opposition since 2004 and of the government group since 2015, the famous Juan Carlos Armas (Llanes, 1959) faces his third term with a change of responsibilities. After eight years at the head of the labor department, he is now in charge of the urban planning department at a significant moment. In the final approval of the general planning plan (PGO) as the final goal, it was previously proposed to solve the problem of the delay in the licenses dragged by the Sangguniang Panlungsod. While waiting for the provisional regulations of the Principality, in his first hundred days as Councilor for Urban Planning he also initiated the instruction to speed up licenses “for projects of special economic interest.”
-Why did this measure arise and what does it consist of?
-We all know what happens in urban planning in Llanes, we have no plan and there is little legal uncertainty. They take time to issue licenses. Due to the circumstances of this City Council, in one of the wings of Asturias, if we get people, many will leave. In my management of this council, on the one hand I said that we have a lot of backlog of license requests, where for me those projects that are economic for Llanes are a priority. We are talking about projects of more than one million euros that will leave money in the treasury to make improvements to the neighbors. On the other hand, all projects in urban centers are for collective housing. We can build more houses that neighbors can use. And the third priority we give for the main residences, all those from the plains who want to build a house do not have to wait for this delay that we are experiencing. We are interested in establishing the population; those who have been registered in Llanes for more than one year and have no other property in their name that can be a first home are considered priority.
-And are there any projects of interest on the table?
-Yes, we have. What I did was the lists I had before. All collective housing, we put in place to make it faster. And all those for the first residence can come to provide the documentation requested from them. But all this is not worth it if we do not give life to the Urban Planning department.
-And what do you suggest about the personnel?
-The position of head of urban planning and heritage services, which is currently vacant, will be filled. But we are still crippled, because it took us 24 months to issue a license. So, instead, we will hire three architects, an assistant, an administrative officer and a lawyer in a package to clear the licenses we have backlogged.
-When are they hiring?
– Go quickly, we can hire five people, not that easy but we know that there are people who are interested to come. And it also helps us that the Principality told us that the temporary regulations will be approved in November, which gives us legal certainty.
-Continuing with the personnel question, in the new list of jobs (RPT) will they propose changes in the Urban Planning department?
-I think it is a good dimension, what is needed is to give the licenses a squeeze now. We hope that in two or three years at most the minimum license period will be reached. People are accepted for a maximum of three years, which is allowed by law.
-Are the temporary rules of the Principality too late?
-I remember that in the first term I accompanied the former Councilor for Urban Planning -Marián García de la Llana- to QUOTA to see if they would make some provisional rules for us. And they told us no. Then they did it, it’s like everything is done and they are in November. There is no doubt that this is not a panacea, but once we have it we have legal security. There are interests on both sides, the Principality is interested in unclogging all the reports that need to go there, which needs to do more things than the City Council of Llanes.
-Let’s continue with PGO. Are you considering any date for provisional approval?
-Heritage should send us the report giving us permission for the change we made. Once that’s in, the writing team should take it back, change four things, and release it for provisional approval. Once the provisional approval is made, if no public presentation is required, it is in the hands of QUOTA for final approval. I don’t want to date. We should have a report now.
-But could that be a provisional approval in this last quarter?
-That’s what we’re working on, I think so.
-What do you think of PSOE’s criticism of the lack of participation in the plan?
-I don’t know where they get it without participation, this is the only plan with participation. I won’t say anything else, no. Because it is the only one with participation. Let’s start with the citizen participation phase before making the plan. From there came a document that was given to the writing team. The meetings were held, there was a presentation of the priority documents, the initial approval, which we had to repeat because we did not bring it at the same time as the catalog. Let the PSOE, the general secretary, talk about the participation of citizens, when his plans were canceled for the theft of public information … Yes, we know that there are some municipalities that changed after the first approval, I am talking about the case of San Roque in Acebal. I think they are self-serving things, people want to have a plan, builders want to have a plan and work. This is a sustainable plan, with an adequate number of houses.
-The Supreme Court recently rejected Sareb’s appeal in La Talá. How do you evaluate this latest judicial decision?
-Sareb had to eat the chaos that happened in the planning of the city of Llanes in those years. At that time, when the plan was annulled, there was a ruling that said it would return to its old, rustic state. Sareb has many plans there, although now it is asking for both, what it is looking for is to return to the ‘status quo’ of the 2003 plan, which will recover all the buildable land. I remember the councilor of the opposition in the previous mandates, Mr. Herrero, when he said that there were acquired rights. The Supreme Court said no. We haven’t harmed anyone and if anyone is going to complain about something, it’s to the gentlemen of 2003. To those who did bad things.
-There is criticism that the PGO being processed will allow the construction of La Talá.
-Allows you to create a plan, reveal it and get it. There are smaller houses and there are subsidized houses. That the PSOE is talking about urban planning in Llanes… They should look into it.
-What assessment do you make of these first hundred days as Councilor of Urban Planning?
-I know more or less how the department can work, but in these first few days I am trying to catch all the issues, which are many and different. Look at the shortcomings of the department, look at its virtues. It has a lot of responsibility because it is the life projects of many people, their home, their business.
-And the government group?
-There is a consensus between the nine councilors, we are a group. There is no class on crack. The opposition has no respect for giving us one hundred days, they try to disturb us with trivial and strange things, but we are doing our thing. We have many exciting projects ahead and we want to continue them.
