Sedatu Drops Property Tax and Forced Sale From Valley Plan
Sedatu says it will remove property tax, vacant-lot and forced-sale tools from the Valley of Mexico metro plan after public consultation concerns.
Sedatu, Mexico’s federal agrarian, territorial and urban development ministry, said it will remove from a draft metropolitan planning program the tools tied to the property tax, vacant and underused lots, a levy on “urban waste” and the forced sale of buildings. El Universal reported the announcement, which Sedatu made in an information card.
The document is the draft Programa de Ordenación de la Zona Metropolitana del Valle de México, or POZMVM (the planning program for the Mexico City metropolitan area). Sedatu said the change responds to concerns that citizens raised during the public consultation.
What is coming out of the draft
Sedatu said it reviewed chapter 7, titled “Instrumentación” (implementation), and chapter 8, “Gestión y Gobernanza” (management and governance). The review followed agreements of the Secretariado Técnico Conjunto (the joint technical secretariat) and the concerns raised in the consultation with indigenous towns, neighborhoods and communities.
The agency said it decided to delete the instruments related to the predial, the local property tax, and the mechanisms covering vacant and underused lots. That includes the levy known as the gravamen al desperdicio urbano and the forced sale of properties, called venta forzosa de inmuebles.
Other changes to the text
Sedatu also plans adjustments to the provisions on how the program is approved and what legal reach it has. The rules on metropolitan financing and governance will be changed as well. The stated aim is to avoid mistaken readings of the document.
The agency stated that the program does not create new contributions, does not alter the regime of private property and does not replace the powers of local governments.
What this means for residents
According to Sedatu, the draft as it will now read contains no property tax instruments and no forced sale of real estate, two of the items the agency named when it announced the removal. It described the amendments as preliminary proposals that come out of the public consultation.
Sedatu framed the revisions as a response to public input. “A government that listens, takes into account what citizens raise and acts accordingly,” the agency said, adding that the consultation is already influencing the review of the program.
What happens next
The consultation continues until its conclusion, Sedatu said. A date for the end of the process or for a final version of the program was not disclosed. Since the changes are described as preliminary proposals, the wording of chapters 7 and 8 in the final program will depend on how the remaining consultation and review go.
Source: El Universal
