Overview
- The update to the Programa de Ordenación de la Zona Metropolitana del Valle de México is in public consultation through Nov. 22 and covers 84 demarcations across Mexico City, the State of Mexico, Hidalgo and Morelos.
- The PVEM in Mexico City publicly announced it will not back the plan’s current wording because it lacks clear legal authority, unclear roles for local governments and provisions seen as allowing auctions of vacant or underused land.
- Sedatu has responded that it will revise the document’s wording to avoid misunderstandings, a change prompted by protests, suspended local forums and political pushback from parties including PAN.
- Civil-society groups and urban specialists are urging a tagged metropolitan budget, a metropolitan planning body and explicit implementation rules to prevent the plan from remaining only on paper.
- Housing experts warn that instruments to identify and ‘use’ vacant land risk channeling sites to large developers and raising costs for low-income owners unless rules guarantee social-interest housing and protections for homeowners.