November 2008 Update

Good day all,

There have been a lot of developments for Pueblo SacBe in the past year. We have finished all the necessary studies and received the zoning change required to get the Subdivision and Construction Licenses. These are the two final licenses needed to proceed with the bond and the registering of the Condominium Regime. The bond is required by law to guarantee the clients and owners that the developer will finish his responsibilities regarding infrastructure and issuance of titles. With the bond in place, the Condominium Regime will be registered and individual titles issued.

When we started the Pueblo SacBe project ten years ago, the land was not titled and was zoned "Ecological Restoration" due to a forest fire in 1989. We had to jump many hurdles to finally receive our title, our land use, and the zoning required for creating a residential community. Our philosophy is to have a soft touch on Mother Nature and create a sustainable village using alternative energy, unpaved roads, wells for potable water, and waste water management on each lot.

Because Playa del Carmen is growing so fast, the city plan expanded to include Pueblo SacBe within the "urban zone", which changed many of the legal requirements regarding infrastructure for a subdivision. Although we are applying to the Federal Government for an exception to some of the city requirements based on our role as a unique development and a model for ecological development, the engineers feel that the exception will not be approved. The Municipal requirements include providing paved roads, electricity, potable water, a treatment plant for residual waters, street lighting, and telephone service for each lot. We have been researching how to do this with as little impact as possible and I will now detail each requirement.

Paved Roads

The idea of putting black pavement in a community with the name 'SacBe' which means 'white road', is not appealing. Bill Barton and I recently went to a presentation of a paving product called EcoCreto, which is a permeable road covering that keeps the ambient temperature and allows the rainwater to pass through and return to the land. It can be installed in many colors and designs such a stamped stone, brick or something more creative. I also checked out several developments using stamped concrete and am investigating the best way we can move forward. In the event that we are required to put in paved roads, we will do it consciously and create a look that fits with our concepts. We are also checking into having molds made of Mayan Hieroglyphs to use as a border. We would be required to put in sidewalks with wheelchair access of a flat material. One side could be made of EcoCreto or Ado Creto (interlocking bricks) and one side could be woodchips for running and biking. One advantage of using concrete for the roads is that there is much less maintenance than on sascab roads, which need to be filled and leveled after each rainy season. One disadvantage of putting concete or EcoCreto streets is that we would need to remove many more trees that we have been trying to protect.
ecocreto1 adocreto1 adocreto2 adocreto3 adocreto4 stamped1 stamped2

Electricity

The requirements of the Municipality are that we need to provide electrical service to each lot. The lot owners will not be obligated to connect to the grid. There now exists a program in Mexico that if you are using alternative energy, such as solar or wind generation, and you are using less energy than you are producing, the electrical meter will turn in reverse and the owner will receive a credit with CFE (Comision Federal de Electricidad), the electrical supplier. We will check our possibilities for this alternative. All services will be buried below the road surface.

Potable Water

As we were informed some time ago, our first idea of installing wells on each lot is not permitted in this area. We had an engineer from Chetumal redo our water study, which explains the network of pipes, pump sizes, fittings, etc . We now have our license from CNA (Comission Nacional de Aqua) to extract 80,000 cubic meters annually for use in the village. There will be a hookup available for each lot.

Waste Water Management

Pueblo SacBe is obligated to install a system to treat and purify the residual waters and effluent from the village. There are many good systems on the market using bacteria and aerobic treatment, which are authorized by the government. We have been investigating products distributed by a local company, as well as an Italian supplier. Each owner will be required to connect to this system. Rural areas allow bio digesters and artificial wetland systems, which we have been using up to now, but the urban zones require that we use a more controlled treatment plant.

Hari Siliceo recently did a survey of 24 existing systems we are presently using in SacBe. Most of the digesters and humedales were working well, but a few were in a state of neglect, due to absentee owners. As we live in a very sensitive area, residing above flowing water, we must be conscious of the possibilities of contaminating the aquifer below. Connecting to a central aerobic system will eliminate this problem.

Street Lighting

Bill Barton (SacBe Resident) has prepared a map for the lighting of streets and common areas for our electricity study. As most of us do not want excessive lighting, we have decided to keep much of the illumination for walkways and parks at a lower level. We will need to put in some higher lighting in traffic areas and many of the lamp stands will be powered by solar energy. Bill suggests that we use efficient LED lights to minimize our energy consumption. See images.
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Telephone and Cable Service

As we are required, by our own bylaws, to bury whatever services we are installing, it would be advisable to include telephone and cable for those who want that option. The telephone and cable company would provide the piping and wires and charge each resident only for normal installation and services.

The new development to provide services to each lot within the urban zone has been a change to many of the original concepts of each resident being self sufficient. There are pros and cons to all of this, although the fact is that we have no choice, unless we are granted an exception by the Federal Government. Our property will be more valuable with provided services, and we will still maintain our philosophy of living close to nature and creating a sustainable community through the efforts of the developer and all the residents. The zoning change gives us the ability to move forward, but requires us to invest more in infrastructure. We are submitting the new plan to the local municipal authorities in early November and the next step is for them to issue Pueblo SacBe the Construction and Subdivision license. With these licenses we will then pay for the bond or guarantee and then we are ready to register the Condominium Regime and issue individual titles. The government has ninety days to respond to our request for the licenses. My best estimate is that we could have titles in the first part of 2009. The engineer, David Rosaldo, estimates the installation of all the services will take about 16 months. This time period does not affect the issuance of titles.

Title issuing

It is important to point out that there have been changes in some lot numbers and in the design originally proposed, mostly because of the project development thru past years.

The original company Sacbe Jungla Maya S.A. de C.V., that was running the project in 1998, changed in 2002 into Sacbe Village S.A. de C.V. which takes full responsibility for all contracts signed with clients by the original company between 1998- 2002.

In 2006 we finally obtained the Title of our property "Pueblo Sacbe" in co-property ownership with the company Muņoz y Asociados S.A. de C.V. and these documents have been properly registered with the corresponding authorities in Quintana Roo. With the assistance of our corporate attorneys we have created new contracts for each owner in English and Spanish, with all legal updates included, but it is important for each owner to sign the new contract in order to continue with the process of the final title for each lot. Please let us know when it would be convenient for you to sign the new contracts between SacBe Village S.A. de C.V. and Muņoz y Asociados S.A. de C.V. In the meantime, your land is secure, and we are doing our best to reach conclusion on the title issue.

Please, if you have ideas, questions or concerns, please email me at: ted@pueblosacbe.com

All the best, ted