A neighborhood group in the Argentine capital is speaking out against the progress of a new government project to set aside the city's last free public lands for a real estate project. At stake are 18 hectares along a railroad in the eastern neighborhood of Retiro, where the Corporación Antiguo Puerto Madero — involving the national and city government — plans to construct buildings for housing, business, hotels and offices.

“The great negative environmental impact that this would bring would hurt neighbors and visitors,” Gerardo Schiopetto, secretary of the Friends of Lake Palermo Association, told Tierramérica.

The association members, residents of Buenos Aires, say the fiscal lands free of construction in this area, one of the most expensive in the city, should be set aside for the public, “preferably for green space,” said Schiopetto.