Ultimately, after a lengthy process, the 15th modification to Concepción's local regulatory plan has finally been enacted (1). In practice, this regulates the maximum allowable construction height within the municipality, ending two decades of mimicking the high-rise real estate model dominant in Santiago.
New projects must now comply with maximum heights ranging from 5 to 15 stories, depending on the urban zone, in accordance with a target vision developed by the municipality's Urban Advisory Department and voted on by the community through a public consultation. (2)
In doing so, this limits a model at its peak and fiercely defended by the Chilean Chamber of Construction (3) (4). This model focused its attention on established downtown areas—with no interest in contributing to less developed zones—proposing a well-known vertical “hyper-densification.” Among other consequences, this has led to the demolition of buildings of great architectural value (specifically from the city's post-1950 modernist movement) (5) to make way for an insistent repetition of virtually identical towers. Most of these exceed 20 stories, casting long shadows over the now perpetually damp sidewalks of Concepción.
