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?

Step 1 – ANA Survey and Results

by | Apr 30, 2019 | Development, Featured, News | Noticias, Security | Seguridad

ANA has existed for 18 years.  For many of those years ANA has had the same four goals – responsible development, security/safety, infrastructure, and building community.  It was time to take stock of where we are now.

Fifteen percent of ANA’s membership responded which is considered a favorable response rate.  The results of ANA’s 2019 survey were as follows using a forced-choice method:

 

1st – Security/Safety of self and property at 42% 2nd – Responsible Development at 32%
3rd – Infrastructure at 17% 4th – Building Community at 11%

 

This survey was the first step in developing ANA’s Five Year Plan.  Step two included the President’s Round Table scheduled on March 25th.

Membership in the Amapas Neighborhood Association

by | Apr 30, 2019 | Development, Featured, News | Noticias

We hope you enjoying yourselves after Semana Santa.  Whether you’re up north or still in Puerto Vallarta please make sure you have renewed your membership.  Why is your membership important?  ANA is a community-based non-profit organization.  We rely upon your membership fees and/or your donations to do the good work normally associated with city services.  Many of us come and/or move to Mexico because we are attracted by the easy life style and lower cost of living.  However, as we spend more time here our expectations for many of the conveniences and services from up north become more desirable.  ANA does not receive any financial support from the city for all of the work we do.  We could wait until our colonia’s needs came up on the city’s radar to get our streets paved and potholes fixed or we can work collaboratively with the city, ANA members, and donors to get the work done.  We’ve chosen the latter approach which has been a very successful one.

What does every member get for 1500 pesos/year?  You get to participate in a community organization dedicated to improving the quality of life in the Amapas colonia.  Your support helps ANA run its office, foster relationships and connections with important city officials in the police, tourism, ecology, public works, and ___ departments.  ANA has also helped members with CFE, SEAPAL, and security companies.  Could you do that on your own?  Maybe.  Maybe not.

To date, ANA has 16 full building members and 56 individual members:

 

Brisa Lunar/Casa Lupe Escondido
Estrella Del Mar Las Hortensias
La Cima I La Cima III
Las Moradas Monte Vista
Renaissance Selvamar
Terraza Del Mar Villas Macuaz
Villa Tizoc Villas Loma Linda
Vista Amapas Vista Romantica
   

Thanks to all of you for the continued support you offer to your neighborhood organization.

ANA brings our neighbors together to create a community by holding monthly Meet and Greet events, and two large social events (Dinner Dance, and Mariachis, Margaritas, and More) throughout the year.  We seek input from our members through the President Walk Abouts, the Survey, the President’s Round Table, and Consultation meetings.  We want to hear what you have to say.

If you’re not a member, please join today to support and add your voice to the strongest community organization in the Puerto Vallarta community.

JOIN/RENEW

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.