Bill 12.

Summary.

The bill would make Cinta Norteña municipal property of the Municipality of Panama (Municipio de Panamá). It assigns the municipality, through the relevant department and in cooperation with the required authorities, responsibility for construction, maintenance, financing, budgeting and organization of the area. The municipality would also handle planning, coordination, operation, implementation, administration and other measures needed for its care and expansion. These provisions place general responsibility for Cinta Norteña with the municipal administration.

The bill defines Cinta Norteña as a protected multiple-use area for recreation, culture, sport and conservation of natural resources. It places the area provisionally in the district of Panama (distrito de Panamá), within the Alcalde Díaz and Ernesto Córdoba Campos corregimientos (districts). Its stated surface area is 57 hectares and 285.814 m2, comprising two parcels called Globo A and Globo B, according to field measurements by the Tommy Guardia National Geographic Institute (Instituto Geográfico Nacional Tommy Guardia). The area extends from the bridge over the Santa Rita stream, before the Nuestra Señora de Lourdes School, to the junction with Gerardo González Vemaza Road. For Globo A, the bill sets out a sequence of points, UTM WGS84 coordinates, bearings and distances. That description begins at the entrance to Los Verdes, near the Transístmica or Boyd Roosevelt Road. The location and measurements are presented as preliminary.

The Municipality of Panama may change Cinta Norteña’s coordinates, bearings, distances, geographic boundaries, property boundaries, easements and preliminary location. In making such changes, it would use its technical judgment and the current plans for the area. The power therefore covers both location data and the features used to delimit the space described in the bill.

Under a transitional provision, the Cinta Norteña Board (Patronato de la Cinta Norteña) and the Municipality of Panama would undertake the steps needed to transfer responsibilities and assets from the bill’s promulgation. The Board would hand over documents, plans, financial statements, contracts, correspondence, movable property, title documents for immovable property, funds and bank accounts relating to Cinta Norteña. The transfer would also cover any other related property, information or documentation. At the end of the transition, the Cinta Norteña Board would be dissolved as a legal entity.

A further transitional provision requires the Municipality of Panama and the National Decentralization Authority (Autoridad Nacional de Descentralización), in cooperation with the Ernesto Córdoba Campos Community Board (Junta Comunal de Ernesto Córdoba Campos), to call a public consultation within the first three months after promulgation. Through the public participation mechanisms established by law, the consultation would decide Cinta Norteña’s planning and budget. Its purpose is to include a budget allocation for construction, maintenance and management during the first period of municipal administration. The bill repeals Law 1 of January 7, 2016, which created the Cinta Norteña Board, and provides that the proposed law would take effect upon promulgation.

The public bodies connected with the bill are the Municipality of Panama, the Cinta Norteña Board, the National Decentralization Authority, the Ernesto Córdoba Campos Community Board and the Tommy Guardia National Geographic Institute. Its provisions could concern residents of the named corregimientos (districts), users of recreational and sports spaces, cultural sectors, and activities involving construction, maintenance and conservation of natural resources.