Ciudad Lagos de Torca, the Great Bet for the Development of the North of Bogota
By Juan Manuel Gonzalez
Partner and Director of the Urban Planning & Real State area
Pinilla Gonzalez & Prieto Abogados
Last March, the Mayor’s Office of Bogota issued Decree 088/2017, known as the North Zone Urban Use Planning (POZ Norte) or Ciudad Lagos de Toca. The rule, which is an unprecedented bet towards the environmental recovery and urban development of that area of the city, has three fundamental components: environmental, regulatory-urban and financial. Before referring to each of them, I will briefly outline some important regulatory background in order to understand the genesis of the POZ Norte and its scopes.
Regulatory background of the POZ Norte
In 2003, when the Land Use Planning of Bogota (POT) was adjusted by means of Decree 469/2003 –later compiled in Decree 190/2004-, the zone use planning instrument was created for the north of the city (POZ Norte) as an intermediate planning tool between the POT and the partial plans and the urban licenses to be issued in that area of the capital. Why was it created? Because Bogota needed a much broader instrument than partial plans in order to define the determinants of use that had to be articulated according to the planned development of that territory.
Years later, the first regulation of the POZ Norte would be issued, Decree 043/2010, supplemented by Decree 464/2011, but these rules evidenced flaws in terms of technical studies as they did not precisely defined the determinants of road mesh, environmental elements and public utilities infrastructure. These gaps caused other gaps, because if the substantive component was missing, the budgeting task would be made impossible and at the same time, the possibility to implement adequate financing mechanisms was hindered. The solution would arrive with the issuance of Decree 140/2012, which repealed the aforementioned rules and left the POZ Norte without regulations.
Five years later, in light of the recently signed Decree 088/2017, Bogota again has a rule that allows an orderly planning of the development of the northern area with objectives as important as: a) the regulation of the technical-urban, environmental and financial aspects of the POZ Norte and its harmonization with the city planning process, establishing urban guidelines in line with the POT; b) providing a solution to the growing demand of housing in the district and its area of influence; c) control the informal development of the northern edge of the city; and d) move forward “the construction of a sustainable habitat based on an interrelation between the environmental value and the implementation of housing projects, trade, services, equipment and other economic activities that improve the functionality and quality of the city”.
Having reviewed this background, we can refer to the three main components of the POZ Norte-Ciudad Lagos de Torca: environmental, technical-urban and financial.
Environmental component
The core of the entire urban development planned for the north of Bogota will be the recovery and conservation of the Wetlands of Torca and Guaymaral and the environmental corridors surrounding it, increasing its groundwater recharge and mitigating the constant flood threats, such as set out in article 8 of Decree 088. After recovering its integrity, this valuable body of water will reinforce the biological connectivity through the network of streams and the sustainable drainage urban system. Added to the above is the construction of the Guaymaral Metropolitan Park, which will have 77 hectares and which together with all conservation lands, will reach about 150 hectares, 37 more than the main green area of the Simon Bolivar Park. Thus a wide range of natural and semi-natural spaces is guaranteed to be integrated into the public space. In short, the planned city model in the POZ Norte is adapted to the natural environment surrounding it and not the other way around, as is often the case in other urban centers.
Technical-urban component
The structuring systems defined by Decree 088 include a detailed technical-urban component that has a Mobility System, a Public Space System and a Public Utilities System, whose guidelines will allow the orderly development of this area of Bogota. Taking into account the cases of Ciudad Verde and Ciudad Salitre as examples of quality urbanism in the past, Ciudad Lagos de Torca will secure the balance between population densities and housing developments, public spaces and road mesh infrastructure networks and services that ensure an effective public space index per inhabitant of 7m2/person, higher than the average of 3.93 m2/person which applies throughout the city. On the other hand, the POZ Norte provides for the construction of more than 110,000 houses combines with commercial and office uses and more than 40,000 houses of social and priority interest, all in an environment of about 400 hectares of public space and 300 hectares allocated only to roads.
Financing Component
In Ciudad Lagos de Torca, an equitable distribution system for costs and benefits shall be implemented that, as set forth in article 7 of the rule, “allows the efficient redistribution among the entirety of beneficiaries of the urban development actions developed, the costs related to financing and construction of the urban infrastructure of support and the protection of the environmental elements, looking for the participation of different public and private parties in its development”.
This system, which had been already defined by Law 388/1997, states that the general urban costs can be financed by means of instruments such as capital gain, the property tax, valuation and the regime of utilities fees, among others. In terms of the financing of local costs such as the road network, the local infrastructure of local utilities, the assignments for parks and the local and zone equipment, the Decree 088 states that it shall be responsibility of the urban development agent or the developer. In light of this, and pursuant to Decree 2181/2006, issued by the then Ministry of Environment, Housing and Land Use, it is possible for the developers to receive a gross floor area index in exchange for assuming said burden, and in order to be entitled to an additional ratio, they contribute resources for the financing of the overhead.
It is observed how, pursuant to the legislative background, the district incorporated to the POZ Norte different financing instruments which facilitate the concurrence of interests with the private sector. Among which, the commercial trust agreement under the terms of article 198 of Decree 088 acquires particular importance, which reads: “The main legal business for the purposes of giving compliance to the equitable distribution system for burdens and benefits referred to in this decree, shall be a single irrevocable Commercial Trust Agreement, by virtue of which a single stand-alone trust fund or trust is constituted, which shall be called Fideicomiso Lagos de Torca”. Its purposes, as stated in article 199, shall be allowing through it, “one or several persons, whether natural or legal persons of private law, in coordination with public entities pursuant to their competences, to plan, develop, perform and deliver the works corresponding to the general burdens of Ciudad Lagos de Torca (…)”.
Unlike the rules which tried to regulate the POZ Norte before, Decree 088/2017 includes a wide portfolio of financing instruments which assures the financial closing and feasibility of the equitable distribution system of burdens and benefits in order to guarantee, not only the resources but the transparency and celerity in the performance of the works.
The above reaffirms that with the initiation of Ciudad Lagos de Torca, a great effort is being made to materialize that which, at the time, was visualized in Law 388/1997 in terms of the organized development of the Colombian cities, which planned growth must begin with the matrix infrastructure, the conservation of the environmental elements, and the construction of more infrastructure prior or parallel to the development of buildings. This is the way to guarantee for citizens a quality urban development supported in the appropriate infrastructure. That is the core of this decree, which will be decisive for the development of the north of Bogota.