This year, the Bocas de Nosara Integral Development Association (acronym in Spanish: ADIN) purchased the property where they plan to relocate 150 families affected by the Nosara River flooding. The families who will benefit live in neighborhoods such as Hollywood, Santa Marta and downtown Nosara.
ADIN hopes to give each one of the 150 families each property’s plan and deed. Construction should begin in about three years, association president Marco Avila estimated.
The land is located in the San Pedro de Nosara neighborhood, 300 meters north of the fairgrounds. It measures 6.5 hectares (16 acres) and cost $6 per square meter, Avila explained. That’s about $390,000.
ADIN acquired it through a loan from three people from the Nosara community, said municipal council member Johnny William Gutierrez, who has been involved in the process.
The property acquisition is part of the “Nosara Unida” (United Nosara) project, a program that started in 2018 with an alliance between ADIN, the Ministry of Housing and Human Settlements (acronym in Spanish: MIVAH), the Municipality of Nicoya and the National Emergency Commission (acronym in Spanish: CNE).
The land’s purchase was finalized after three years of searching and analyzing properties that met the necessary geographical characteristics, according to Avila.
The hardest thing was getting the funds for the property. We had been negotiating the property for three years. It was hard. We got the land and a loan,” he added.
ADIN intends to transform the land where the families currently are into green areas, to prevent them from being lived on again.
The housing project will include:
- Children’s areas
- Communal area
- Water treatment plant
- Hydrant system
- Collection center
- Bus stop
- 4,000 trees throughout the property
“The idea is that this project be a model for other development associations in the country. Housing Minister Jessica Martinez proposed that the treatment plant that we plan to include [could] self-generate the water system for the gardens. That’s something we want to include,” Avila specified.
He also explained that the housing project is still in an initial stage, in which they discuss the plan designs and apply for the respective permits.
The land where the housing project will be built is located 300 meters north of Nosara’s fairgrounds. Photo: Cesar Arroyo
Declared of Public Interest
Last Tuesday, September 6, the members of the Municipal Council of Nicoya approved a motion by council member Johnny William Gutierrez to declare the land project where the work will be done of public interest for the canton.
The property has several hills and to make it completely flat, as requested in order to build, they must remove the material (earth, stone, trees) and move it out of the property.
To move the material, they must have approval from the Ministry of Environment and Energy’s (MINAE) department of geology and mines. ADIN submitted the permit application last June, according to President Marco Avila.
Avila also said that, to carry out these procedures, they hired a company for an amount of ¢25 million (about $39,000), mainly from profits from the fiestas in February, which were about ¢35 million (about $55,000).
During the council session, council member Johnny William Gutierrez mentioned that ADIN plans to remove the material and sell it to obtain funds and reinvest them in the project, once MINAE approves the environmental permits, of course.
As detailed by the president of ADIN and by the council member, Gutierrez, the sale of the land can take place within the framework of the Law for Strengthening Development Associations that former president Carlos Alvarado signed at the beginning of this year.
This regulation allows granting community organizations the figure of public utility when they generate income from commercial activities to reinvest the money completely in useful projects for the interests of the State.
Past Negotiations
Buying the land to develop the “Nosara Unida” project took several years.
As previously reported by The Voice in the Nosara newsletter, ADIN negotiated the purchase of land for this same purpose in Santa Teresita in 2018, but it didn’t work out because the land didn’t have the necessary geographic characteristics so construction permits couldn’t be granted, according to the Municipality of Nicoya.
The idea was ruled out at that time and ADIN continued searching for possible land to develop the project.
The floods in Nosara continue to occur despite the fact that the CNE and the National Service for Subterranean Water, Irrigation and Drainage (acronym in Spanish: SENARA) implemented actions to prevent flooding from the Nosara River, such as building a dike.
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