Urban Land Reserves Trajectory in Mexico: Irregularity, Urban Development and Municipal administration after the Constitutional Reform of 1992

Abstract

It is discussed how the legislative reform of the Article 27 in 1992 in Mexico affected the urban land management, particularly, the forms of creating urban reserves from ejido land. As it is shown, the new mechanisms under which ejido land may be disestablished in order to prevent irregular urban growth, mainly by informal alienation proccess, have been unsuccessfully. Two main aspects explain these results. Firstly, ejidatarios still not have the complete autonomy to control their own land by themselves; instead, federal and states govenments still maintain several options to modify the ejidatarios decisions. Secondly, planning agencies and municipal governments frequently have a low administrative and financial capacity, to exercise effective authority over land development processes. To finalize, it is suggested to think in new terms the notion of urban land reserves, and there are pointed out some areas where the municipal administration might be improved.

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