A Kinder Gentler Highway Experience

by | Apr 30, 2019 | AIM Higher, Development, Events, Featured, News | Noticias, Street

What motivates people to drive cautiously?  In Vallarta the focus of driving is to keep on moving.  Stop signs are guidelines and offered up as suggestions to take a moment and pause.  If the intent is to make people slow down then the topes (speed bumps) are the only way to influence driving behavior.  Why?  Topes can cause significant harm to a vehicle, which is a prized possession, and must be cared for.

Therefore, that is why topes are used so frequently throughout the city.  They work! What doesn’t work is relying on driver’s good intentions, especially when it comes to driving on Highway 200 – the Carretera. Everyone loves zooming up and down the highway and the feeling that they are driving up the Pacific Coast Highway.  Same beautiful waters, but a whole lot more pedestrians. Safety was the number one issue for ANA members.  It includes home and personal safety.  Whether you own or rent, walk or drive, it is important for everyone to be able to cross the highway. 

 The stretch of highway that divides the Amapas community twists and turns and allows vehicles to accelerate and decelerate at amazing speeds.  Quite often there are multi-denominational prayer services held at the blind intersections where requests for heavenly assistance can be overheard.  Please, oh please, make sure the oncoming vehicle is not accelerating as I enter the highway.  Pedestrians and drivers pray to  their respective divinities. Wouldn’t it be great if we all just slowed down?  What if every time we saw a pedestrian trying to cross the highway we stopped and let him/her do so?  What if we were driving slow enough to allow another vehicle to merge in front of us?  What if we all just got along? All possibilities.  All dreams.  What is our reality?

Official call general meeting 2019

by | Feb 11, 2019 | AIM Higher, Aviso de Privacidad|Privacy Notice, Development, Events, Featured, Financial, Junta Vecinal, Minutes | Minutas, News | Noticias, Security | Seguridad, Street, Uncategorized

Based on the bylaws of its constitutive, by means of this notice all members are summoned to a GENERAL MEETING which will take place at TASTE, Callejon de la Igualdad 129, Puerto Vallarta on February 16th, 2018 at 10:00 a.m. if required quorum can´t be reached, then a second call shall convene at 10:30 a.m. Find attached the oficial call.

Oficial call
INDIVIDUAL Proxy
FBM Proxy

Bylaws Modifications 2018

by | Nov 9, 2018 | AIM Higher, Aviso de Privacidad|Privacy Notice, Development, Events, Featured

There were six revisions to ANA’s Bylaws made at the Extraordinary Meeting.  Here is a brief summary.

  • A full building member (FBM) is now identified as a type of member of the Association.
  • ANA’s four main goals are Responsible Development, Security, Infrastructure and Creation of Community.
  • There are three different kinds of fees: ordinary, voluntary, and extraordinary.
  • During an Ordinary Meeting, such as ANA’s Annual Meeting, a minimum quorum can be established at the second call.
  • Minimum requirements established to serve on the ANA Board –
    • Must reside in PV a minimum of six months
    • Must be a member in good standing
    • Must have been a member for at least a year
    • Must have a good reputation
    • To be considered for Board President, the member must have served on the Board for at least a year
  • ANA has two legal representatives – the President and Treasurer.

If you would like to see a full versión of ANA’s ByLaws, please stop by the office and Viviana will give you a copy.

‘MEMBERS ONLY’ Q&A: ‘Vallarta Development 101’

by | May 11, 2018 | AIM Higher, Development, Events, Featured, News | Noticias, Uncategorized

Over 40 ANA members filled the auditorium at Incanto for an informative presentation followed by a lively question and answer session on April 11.
Real estate broker and AMPI PresidentHarriet Murray, City Hall veteran Ing. Oscar Hernandez (ably assisted by ANA Administrator Viviana Testón), university professor of Urban Planning Alfonso Banos, and local hotelier and developerOscar Moran presented a short course on the history of urban planning (or the lack thereof) in Vallarta, Jalisco and Mexico – essentially, how we got where we are today – the ins and outs (COS and CUS) of permitted construction, and current economic and social pressures affecting Vallarta’s recent growth spurt.
Hot topics were the recent ‘Manhattanization’ of the Romantic Zone, the protections offered Amapas by our Plan Parcial, or not, depending on the willingness of City Hall to respect the rules, and whether Vallarta’s infrastructure is keeping up with the new water and sewer demands resulting from the construction boom.

Some differences between areas with a Plan Parcial, like Amapas, and areas without, like Emiliano Zapata and most of the Romantic Zone, were discussed.  Among them: under the Amapas Plan Parcial, developers cannot ask for an exception to the rules just because some other building exceeded them; also, under the recently passed Article 35, the Planning Department has more discretion in applying zoning rules in areas without a Plan Parcial.

Panelists and ANA members alike expressed frustration at the lack of a coherent Urban or Growth Plan for Vallarta, the lack of transparency in the permitting process, and the sense that unplanned or poorly regulated development is eating away at Vallarta’s authentic charms and threatening to replace its vibrant core with highrise ‘dormitories’ that add to the local tax-base, but subtract from our town’s livability and long term sustainability.

Inspired by questions raised at our Annual General Meeting, this is the second in a series of special ANA ‘Members Only’ informational presentations, which are generously hosted by popular local entertainment venue Incanto.

Now that we better understand the basic rules, ANA plans to have a follow-up Q&A in the fall, and will invite representatives of the Planning Department and SEAPAL to attend.  Stay tuned.

Rocking the Callejon!

by | Aug 14, 2014 | AIM Higher, News | Noticias

Callejon Bridge

Callejon Bridge

With ANA helping arrange free city labor, and neighbors paying the materials, Callejon de la Igualdad got some long-needed repairs in August.

The bridge was widened and a curb added, years after a bad storm had knocked out a good piece of the bridge which was never repaired.  The entrance of the Callejon was repaved, a project that has been over 15 years in coming.

Callejon rocking

Callejon rocking

Casa Cupula contributed half the cost of materials, and four other Callejon neighbors and ANA Members Rennaissance building, Ron Morgan, Tom Hicks and Tim Hainds contributed the rest so the entire project was completed without ANA funds.

The model of neighbors paying for materials and ANA corralling city labor is a good one that can be used in other areas where neighbors get together to pay materials cost.

Your ANA at work for Amapas.

One Pothole Fixed, 86,793 to Go!

by | Aug 7, 2013 | AIM Higher, Junta Vecinal, News | Noticias

Bill A's Hortensias Tire-Eater Pic Hortensias-Highway Repair-July 2013While the city is full of potholes this time of year, this one where Hortensias meets Highway 200 was a dangerous hole into the drainage grate.

Alert new ANA member Steve Moore (Brisa Lunar) recently spotted it and let Administrator Jae Palsce know.  One of the new concrete beams supporting the big metal drainage grates had essentially ‘melted’ away in the summer rains, leaving a nest of exposed rebar – nasty surprise for an unwary driver coming up or down the hill.

As a Junta Vecinal, our Association is able to get the attention of Obras Publicas, which handles street repair.  As a result of persistent calls and emails from our Administrator, O.P. dispatched a repair crew to replace the missing cement – problem solved.  Your ANA in Action.