Santo Domingo Norte grows like "a broken plate"
Luis Matías, Planning Director of the Santo Domingo Norte City Council, deplores the lack of responsibility of the different governments in planning the development of municipalities throughout the country.
"Suddenly, you cross a land that is not inhabited and the next day it is inhabited by invaders who begin to demand a series of basic services, such as water or electricity."
He observes disadvantages compared to other areas of the province that surrounds the National District, such as Santo Domingo Este, which exhibits a level of planning and a more defined urban impulse than the other municipalities in its demarcation.
With a territorial extension that occupies 29.8% of the 1,302.2 square kilometers of its province, Santo Domingo Norte has a population of 529,390, equivalent to 22.3% of the 2,374,370 inhabitants registered in the demarcation by the 2010 Census of the National Statistics Office ( ONE).
Its city council managed a budget of RD $ 694.2 million in 2017, of which RD $ 75 million came in from the collection of fees and services.
The Economic and Social Council of the Santo Domingo Norte Municipality, chaired by María Faní and made up of 22 representatives of organizations, also deplores the lack of support from the central government for the demarcation.
“Our municipality has a large rural part and we lack, for example, a space for higher studies, not even in the technical part. We do not have universities, neither public nor private, ”says Faní.
Santo Domingo north municipality
The Santo Domingo Norte City Council managed a budget of RD $ 694.2 million in 2017.
Remember that many students from Monte Plata cross the municipality on their way to the universities of the National District. Although the Santo Domingo Metro facilitates travel, it understands that, to expand mobility, the rail line must be extended to Punta Villa Mella.
Among the works demanded by the council are the construction of a market estimated at RD $ 90.2 million, a factory and storage center (RD $ 85 million) and an industrial park (RD $ 106 million).
In environmental terms, it demands an investment of more than RD $ 116 million for different actions that include the preservation of the protected and green areas of the Ozama River wetlands, the conservation of endemic species and the construction of wastewater treatment plants. Also, for the regulation of constructions and the management of industrial and hospital waste.
Santo Domingo Norte achieved a certain real estate boost with the start of the Ciudad Modelo housing complex, an ambitious private project stimulated by the Government during one of Leonel Fernández's administrations. Then it was promoted that it would include 12,000 homes, with schools, sports areas, universities and shopping centers.
The architect Alejandro Acuasiasti, director of Urban Infrastructure of the Neighborhood Council of Ciudad Modelo, Mirador Norte, Stage I, recalls that the project arose at the initiative of the Moya-Jorge Consortium, two large construction companies of the 1980s. “The strategy consisted in building the physical infrastructure of a city with all the urban services ready, to motivate both real estate investors and to supply part of the housing demand ”.
But only a quarter was built. “Faced with the timid response of the market, the same consortium developed part of the developments. The project attracted very little investment and caused the economic collapse and its liquidation to the banks ”, laments Acuasiasti.
"The few families that had invested in housing were left in a territory almost entirely owned by institutions traditionally incompetent and disinterested in continuing to develop the project," he says.
Villa Mella, which became part of the Santo Domingo Norte municipality after the division of the National District through Law 163-01 (of October 16, 2001), thus lost the opportunity to have an ambitious urban development in a short time.
The director of the Ciudad Modelo Neighborhood Board understands that the slowness of development is due to the fact that the completion standard, both for infrastructure and services, was “very high and expensive, compared to those used by the public who demand homes of this level ”. He considers that the deterioration that affected Jacobo Majluta avenue for years drove away and demotivated buyers.
Currently the project has about 1,200 houses and apartments. "In the process of construction and approved, it has about 350 new housing units," says Acuasiasti. In addition, its population is around 5,400 inhabitants in houses and apartments, for a density of 4.5 per dwelling.
In recent years, the area has taken new impulses with the development of large housing developments by Constructora Bisonó, including Ciudad Bonita or Buenaventuranza.
Economic dynamics
The Jacobo Majluta remains one of the main avenues of relief for traffic in the area. Over time, activities began to be developed in its surroundings that promote the economic growth of the demarcation, such as the transport of cargo and passengers through the La Isabela International Airport.
The terminal handled 19,622 passengers between January and June of this year, 25% more than the 5,693 in the same period of 2017, according to data from the Civil Aviation Board (JAC).
Free zones also contribute to the economic dynamics of the municipality. The ten companies that operate under his regime in Santo Domingo Norte generate 528 direct jobs and pay about RD $ 97.7 million in payroll.
Statistics from the National Council of Export Free Zones (CNZFE) show that the ten companies export US $ 7.4 million a year, occupy 372.4 square feet of warehouses and have a cumulative investment of US $ 29.5 million. A year they also pay about RD $ 114.8 million in services such as electricity, social security, telecommunications, fuel or transportation.
In the demarcation the Memorial Garden has been operating for several years, a private cemetery that is promoted as a natural paradise that "covers 105 hectares (1,670 tasks) of forest conservation, wetlands and rivers". The funeral home offers cremation as part of its funeral services.
The cemetery is also close to the Mirador Norte National Park, an environmental lung protected under Decree 2007-02, of March 20, 2002, which created it with an area of about ten square kilometers that are located within Jacobo Majluta avenues. and Hermanas Mirabal.
The Santo Domingo Aqueduct and Sewerage Corporation (Caasd) is building the “Ozama River Wastewater Treatment Plant” in a contiguous area, which entails an investment of US $ 115 million and, according to the Presidency of the Republic, generates in these moments 2,600 direct and indirect jobs.
President Danilo Medina visited the work in early March. During the tour, the director of the Caasd, Alejandro Montás, explained that the plant will collect and treat liquid waste from 37 sectors of the National District and Santo Domingo Norte (such as La Zurza, Cristo Rey or Villa Consuelo) populated by some 450 thousand people.
According to Montás, about 27 million gallons of contaminated water go to the Ozama every day. The Government assured last week, through the Minister of the Presidency, Gustavo Montalvo, that the plant will start operating next year.
A landfill
The Duquesa remains one of the main environmental problems facing Santo Domingo Norte. The deposit receives about 3,800 tons of waste each day, according to Onofre Rojas, director of the Greater Santo Domingo Commonwealth.
duchess recyclers
Around 2,000 “divers” operate at the Duquesa landfill. | Gabriel Alcantara
The commonwealth, which includes the Santo Domingo province, the National District, San Cristóbal, Nigua and Haina, generates about 4,200 tons of waste per day.
"Most of it goes to Duquesa," says Rojas, who explains that after the technical closure ordered by the Ministry of the Environment to be completed in a period of five years, the new landfill will be established in another place in the same municipality, although more towards the North. He explained that due to its geographical conditions, it is the most appropriate area to handle waste.
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