METROPOLITAN MERIDA. HISTORICAL EVOLUTION AND CURRENT FEATURES.

- AN URBAN PERSPECTIVE –
JORGE BOLIO OSES

INTRODUCTION
Despite the fact that since 1984 the Mérida region began to be considered as a conurbation
in official planning spheres, the metropolitan phenomenon was still not outlined with the
clarity that it assumed a decade later. Although the physical continuity of three cities, Mérida,
Kanasín and Umán, was a visible and worrying trend in terms of urban planning, the strong
functional unity that now exists between Mérida and the immediate surrounding region,
made up of various municipalities, and which marks the development of all areas of regional
life beyond physical-spatial expressions.

. The tendency of the city to organize around itself the activities of the population centers to
constitute a clearly differentiated functional region, has gone beyond the role of Mérida as
the gravitational center or pivot of the area previously called henequenera. Today, the flows
between this central city or conurbation and itshinterland They are not limited to the transfer
of henequen fiber and the commercial supply of this wide area. Now, the flows incorporate
strong commuting and short-distance migratory movements, significant and growing
vehicular traffic, and above all, the integration of regional real estate and labor markets. No
less important are the flows of intangible components such as information, the new
sociocultural patterns promoted by urban consumption and even the exercise of political
power through emerging forms and actors.

The metropolitan phenomenon has established its roots in the Mexican geography and plays
a central role in the urbanization process of the country. If in 1960, the country's
industrialization already consolidated, there were 12 metropolitan areas, by 1995 these
functional units around large cities were already 56, Mérida included in ninth place, and
concentrated 56% of the national population on 79 % of the urban population and 75 % of
the 2 gross domestic product (SEDESOL, 2006: 10). In the metropolitan area of ​Mérida
(hereinafter ZMM) the process manifested itself in the early 1990s (Bolio, 2004: 53-65) and
accelerated in line with a dynamic real estate market favored by neoliberal reforms to the
legal and institutional framework. , which favored the passage of extensive peri-urban ejido
areas into private hands, as we will explain later.

The complexity of the metropolitan phenomenon is such that it would require an enormous
effort to study it and too much space to expose it within the brief limits of this work. Of
course, we are not addressing our field of interest here without relating it to a more general
and interdisciplinary context that in recent years has materialized in a Comprehensive
Program for the Metropolitan Development of Mérida (PIDEM), coordinated by the person
writing this and carried out in close collaboration with Alfonso X. Iracheta from El Colegio
Mexiquense, A. C. It was sponsored by the Conacyt-Government of Yucatán Mixed Fund
and carried out between 2010 and 2011 at the Fundación Plan Estratégico de Mérida, A. C.
During this collective effort, I developed a research project at UADY called "Metropolitan
processes and urban reorganization of Mérida and its region" with the collaboration of Luis
Ramírez Carrillo and Rodolfo Canto Sáenz, researchers from the same institution. This work
is largely my contribution to these projects.
 This essay focuses particularly on some processes of territorial and urban order
undoubtedly linked to the metropolitan phenomenon. The purpose is to show its historical
development, particularly in the context of recent events of great importance, and then
expose the most relevant features of urban change and its current trends. In a first part
called "A regional history of urban primacy" I make a tight historical synthesis of the
formation of Mérida as a pre-eminent city, reviewing processes such as its central function in
the peninsular context (Bolio, 1984: 92-111), the reorganization of the regional economic
base in the face of global markets and, finally, its consolidation as a regional metropolis
expressed in demographic and functional changes in the urban system. A second part
“Mérida and its region today. An urban perspective”, briefly exposes the current state of the
urban structure and the use of the territory in the ZMM, emphasizing the behavior of the real
estate market and the influence of public policies that through plans and urban megaprojects
have accompanied and reinforced the metropolization of this area. Finally, the most
outstanding findings in this study of the urban reorganization of Mérida and its region are
presented as a conclusion.

MÉRIDA, A REGIONAL HISTORY OF URBAN PRIMACY

The most remote antecedents

In a previous work (Bolio, 2000: 1-5) I explained in more detail how in the face of the scarcity
of attractions for Spanish colonization and the demographic collapse of the indigenous
population in the first decades of colonial life, the greed for arms and tributes gave lead to
the following demographic and territorial consequences:

● The depopulation of the coasts for three and a half centuries.

● The reconcentration of indigenous peoples under the policy of religious congregation

or “reduction” of indigenous peoples.

● The high indigenous component of the viceregal population compared to few

Spaniards and Creoles.

● The slow growth of the "Spanish" cities that only required a few naboríos or "urban
indigenous" for their personal service.

● The demarcation of very rigid sociocultural borders between the white northwest (the
region around Mérida) and the indigenous rest of the peninsular territory.

● The late agrarian change from the indigenous milpa to the fenced Creole units, such
as cattle “sites” and corn-livestock ranches.

● Lastly, the generation of a pre-eminent urban system, organized since then around
Mérida, the administrative and religious capital of the province.

With Independence, the first phase of a sui generis process of agrarian accumulation and
transformation was unleashed, with the dispossession of lands from the indigenous
community and the forced rooting of the population in ranches, haciendas, and sugar mills,
all of which generated a period of prosperity for a newly independent Creole society from
Spanish rule. From Independence to 1847, this competition with the Indians for the best
lands, in a legislative framework that was most unfavorable to them, coincided with various
divisions among the ruling class that was continually engaged in factional struggles for
political power. The so-called "Caste War", a violent indigenous insurrection, shook this
economic structure to its foundations. Three years later, around 1850, the situation of the
"Creole" peninsula was bleak. Only the northwestern portion of Yucatán, that is, Mérida and
its nearby region, as well as the Camino Real and the port of Campeche, were spared from
this devastation (Reed, 1971: 71-108 and Suárez-Molina, 1979: 53-54). At the end of the
critical stage of the war, the oligarchic bloc of Mérida had ceded economic and political
control of the entire current state of Quintana Roo and a part of Campeche, marking a
retreat in the population line and the disappearance of the hacienda front. sugar factories
and all businesses on the borders of the indigenous insurrection. The withdrawal of the
population towards this region of Mérida and the preservation of the haciendas from their
destruction throughout this area, would favor -along with other factors- the large-scale
development of the cultivation of henequen, a process that would mark the new orientation
of the settlement in the second half of the 19th century and the first decades of the current
century. The city of Mérida at this time, magnificently captured in the topographic plan made
in 1864-1865 under the imperial commissariat of Salazar Ylarregui, was home to
approximately 24,000 inhabitants.

During the Porfiriato, the insertion into the world market of this agrarian structure –the new
henequen area- concentrated in the northwest of the peninsula, was the fundamental factor
in Yucatecan history. The tendency of the henequen hacienda to develop in this specific
region of the peninsula was determined by three factors:

1. The existence of a previously developed infrastructure of a few hundred ranches and

corn-livestock farms that had fixed a considerable contingent of labor in them, had land,
water sources, buildings, roads, etc.

2. The new limits imposed by the Caste War on the expansion of haciendas and plantations
in the south and east of Yucatan.

3. The soil and climate conditions of the northwest, which produced a more resistant fiber
than the humid areas of the south and east, areas that were only gradually recovering from
the control of the indigenous insurrection, which would not be fully achieved until 1904.

Given the demanding demand for fiber on the part of the US market, the advance of the
plantations was explosive. In 1851 there were 1,200 ha. planted with henequen; in 1861
there were already 3,120; in 1883 they were slightly more than 40,000 (60% of the cultivated
surface in Yucatan) and in 1909 they reached a peak of 183,200 ha. (González-Navarro:
1976: 182-183) which is equivalent to an average growth rate of 9.1% per year in those 58
years. Under this prosperity, the small port of Sisal, from which the first shipments to New
York had left, was replaced by the closer port of Progreso. Since 1875, the railways have
burst into this area, which inaugurated the Mérida-Progreso railway in 1881 and is covered,
at the end of the Porfiriato, with one of the densest networks that existed in the country after
that of the central highlands. This network was complemented by an even denser network of
narrow "Decauville" tracks for animal traction, which connected the haciendas with the
railway stations and population centers.
 It was this period of henequen economic boom, technological innovations and links with the
international market, which led to the most profound urban and architectural changes in
Mérida at that time. The city registered its first physical overflow to the north, a privileged site
for the ascending elite, beyond the downtown-neighborhood layout and structure inherited
from the colony and under a different urban structure and with better services, new materials
and construction procedures. Mérida underwent architectural changes that substantially
modified its image. Emblematic elements of this urban change were the Paseo de Montejo
residential subdivision with its boulevard designed in the European style of that time; Paseo
where the henequen magnates built large mansions under new architectural fashions; No
less important was the complex of urban facilities to the west of the Santiago neighborhood,
with a zoological park "El Centenario", the "Parque de la Paz", the "Hospital O'Horan", a
Psychiatric Hospital and, of course, a modern and huge prison, the "Juárez Penitentiary"
with its panopticon cells, according to the avant-garde theses of Jeremy Bentham. This
complex communicated with the center through "Porfirio Díaz" avenue built on what is now
59th street (Ancona, R. and R. Riancho, 1987: 54-57).

Along with these emblematic works, the henequen oligarchy undertook the modernization of
the urban structure, paving the entire central headquarters of the city and introducing public
lighting in it and in the squares and main streets of the neighborhoods. 6 New materials,
construction procedures and technological innovations have been introduced in the city
since then; asphalt, steel, concrete, glass, electricity, lighting of downtown streets and urban
transport, signaled the change in the new urban spaces and buildings.

With 62,000 inhabitants and an urban area close to 1,400 hectares, in 1910 Mérida was the
third largest and one of the best-equipped cities in the context of Mexican cities; of course,
without this equally benefiting the residential areas of the new elite nicknamed "Casta
Divina" and their subordinate social groups -settled in the center and around Paseo de
Montejo, Reforma avenue and 59th street- and the few middle and popular colonies of the
beginning of the century, emerged mainly to the south and east of the old central area. The
total peninsular population was, in 1910, 435,000 inhabitants, with a distribution
concentrated in Mérida and its henequen area and the western coast. Well-configured urban
subsystems (relationships between cities and towns and productive areas) were already
present and still prevail with slight variations in the current era. Since then, the city of Mérida
and the port of Progreso tied their destinies as a functional unit, as a port-city duo with
strong economic and social ties (Map 1).

MAP 1. HENEQUENERO RISE AND URBAN NETWORK OF THE PORFIRIATE, 1910.

Source: BOLIO (1984).

In the first half of the 20th century, the difficult decades that elapsed from the end of the First
World War until the 1950s were marked by the limitations of the world market for hard fibers.
This adversity reoriented the scheme of economic use towards other areas and activities. A
new activity began to emerge in close connection with the production of henequen and the
depression of the world market: the industrialization of the fiber. This gave rise to the
massive emergence of cordage factories in Mérida, which multiplied with the favorable
circumstances of the Second World War and the Korean conflict, until reaching their greatest
number in 1960 (Vera, 1983: 19-27). The active population employed in industrial branches
in the state grew from 10.6% to 15.5% between 1940 and 1950, a margin that would be
maintained until 1970. In this way, until the end of the fifties, the activity of the corderías of
the city of Mérida was the more dynamic in the regional economy, although nothing
comparable with the export boom of decades ago. Between 1925 and 1950 the railways
were gradually complemented by a network of highways that connected the main peninsular
towns with Mérida. This network adopted a peculiar convergent disposition that clearly
expressed the economic control of this city in the regional context of that time. On the other
hand, the influence of the automobile and public transport in the expansion of the city
towards new neighborhoods and suburbs became evident from the beginning of the fifties,
when the number of automobiles, trams, buses, distribution agencies, mechanical
workshops and fuel outlets multiplied without ceasing.

Robert Redfield, a distinguished representative of the Chicago School and of the trend later
called Urban Ecology, studied the Yucatan peninsula in the early 1930s. The description of
Mérida is exemplary of what was considered a city of that level, which the demographic
concentration and the confluence of communication routes had turned into "a metropolis
without competition" that dominated the economic, political and social life of Yucatán. Its
economy revolved around financial and, above all, commercial activity: in Mérida the “import
and export firms, large wholesale houses, insurance agencies, department stores,
automobile dealers, modern hotels and other specialized services” (Redfield, 1944: 38) It
was pointed out that most of the mechanized industry that existed was in Mérida and the
business of some factories and workshops was mentioned (Idem, 39). Another of the urban
functions that Redfield emphasized was that of the economic and political control of the rural
life of the state. On the one hand, Mérida was the center of operations and residence of the
owners and foremen of the haciendas and of the state officials in charge of the production of
sisal, and at the same time, from there the public domain of the state and the official party
was exercised. on the peasant population that worked in them (Ib.39).

Redfield's gaze persisted in Mérida in the mid-20th century in three fundamental features:

1. The eminently intermediary and consumer character assigned to that level of city.

2. The relationship of control that he exercised over his rural hinterland.

3. The lack of dynamism attributed to rural society.

Until 1960, when the southeast railway and the federal highway to Mexico broke
the peninsula's land isolation from the rest of the country, Mérida's light industry did not
face competition from other more industrialized central regions. Before, on the contrary,
protected by the state governments in turn, it assumed the role of regional distribution
center for national industry and contraband from the "free zones" of Quintana Roo. For
this decade, Mérida, with 171,000 inhabitants, had established itself as the hegemonic
center of a slowly expanding peninsular urban system. If in 1910 the population of the
city represented 25.5% of the population of the henequen area, in 1950 that demographic
concentration had grown to 40.1%, closing a period of slow urbanization and opening
the way for a faster one, related to migration from the countryside. and smaller cities
towards the state capital. The reconfiguration of the regional economy in the sixties and
seventies, and its spatial correlate, the system of cities, marked the beginning of a new
era in the urban development of Mérida. In this period, country-city relations would be
disrupted to such a degree that the productive scenario would move to the city, to a
thriving urban economy. In this period, we can mark the following as "milestones" in the
urban-regional history of Mérida:
● The emergence of a hierarchical and organized system of cities around
Mérida and the modernization of the city in its infrastructure, collective
facilities and architectural styles.
 ● The availability of a commercial port open to the world market at that time
and a dense rail transport network converging in Mérida, which was quickly
replaced by highways and motor transport.
● The late and limited industrialization (corderías and goods of immediate
consumption) of the urban economy of Mérida.
● The incipient urban concentration of the main local fortunes (rentiers) due to
the Agrarian Reform and the crisis of the henequen business.
● The emergence and rise of a commercial apparatus concentrated in the center
of Mérida and whose area of ​influence would cover a region beyond the
limits of Yucatán.

Reorganization of the economic base and consolidation of a regional metropolis

Between 1940 and 1990, the provincial and traditional city that prospered with the rise of
the henequen economy and that barely reached one hundred thousand inhabitants (98,832)
reached a demographic size five times greater (523,422); this without including the capital
of Kanasín, already physically linked to Mérida and which registered 22,020 inhabitants in
the 1990 census. This fact, merely quantitative, was the expression of a complex and
prolonged process of economic, social and physical-spatial transformation, knotted around
the obstinate and permanent search for alternative activities for the increasingly worse
situation of the hard fiber market. Such substitution of the basic axis of the Yucatecan
economy went through multiple experiences; most of them did not manage to consolidate,
others were resounding failures for various fractions of the regional capital; However,
some lines of economic development managed to become attractive options for production,
employment and growth over the years.
These advances, to a greater or lesser degree, were closely related to what we can
callthe urban economy of the city of Mérida; that is: the size of its market for the incipient
industrial production and commerce, its still central function in the state and peninsular
supply, its availability of workforce and basic infrastructure, the boom in housing
construction, its various services for the productive plant and collective consumption, its
educational and training levels in human resources and, above all, the fact of being the
headquarters of the main capital accumulated during the henequen and
cordage But also, the control center for the enormous federal public investment that was
channeled to Yucatan to mitigate the most serious effects of the agave crisis, such as
unemployment for almost 70,000 peasant families, a political risk that the regime would
not run thanks to the federal subsidies destined for more than two decades to agrarian
credit (Henequeneros de Yucatán, Banco Agrario, Banrural, etc.) and to the parastatal
textile complex Cordemex. This contributed to making Mérida the main financial center of
the region.
As happened with most of the large Latin American cities (De Mattos, 2002: 5-10),
the link with the world economy through activities such as tourism, regional control of
foreign trade, the rise of the maquiladora export industry and the development of a modern
commercial and services apparatus, were the options that the regional capital took as the
most viable for its expansion in the situation that opened with economic globalization and
made possible by the recent modernization of the port of Progreso. By the mid-1990s,
other government diversification projects had been left behind, as well as the intentions of
private capital to develop a nationally competitive local manufacturing plant and to
reactivate the construction industry to the levels it reached in the 1970s, when it
monopolized the branch throughout the peninsula.
Between the urban informal economy and the massive emigration of rural workers
to Cancun and other poles of the "Riviera Maya" -relief valves or forms of exclusion that
are very effective until today- new options for the regional productive base. In this sense,
Mérida, as a regional metropolis favored by a nearby port and with a privileged
geopolitical location, managed to maintain its central role in the urban context of the
peninsula thanks to the productive transformations that globalization brought to Yucatán.
This influence reinforced the historical trends of spatial concentration of the
economy in Mérida and its immediate region and favored a dynamic process of growth and
modernization of communications and transportation in the region and of an increasingly
dominant urban commercial and service sector in the region. the peninsular scene. To no
lesser extent, it also fostered the demographic growth of the Mérida-Kanasín-Umán
conurbation, despite the strong Yucatecan rural migration to Quintana Roo and the daily or
weekly commuting migration from a network of towns and cities from which It was the
henequen zone, a symptom
eminent of an emerging metropolization process around Mérida and its conurbation as a
central city.
In this way, Mérida -with its insertion in the global context, its dynamism, its
marked centrality and its specialization in the trade and services sector- is a singularity or a
case "atypical” in the set of regional metropolises and medium-sized cities of the country
whose development is more linked to endogenous factors (Gouëset, 1997: 23-32).
Excluding in these, of course, the northern border cities and some tourist poles such as
Cancun and Acapulco, also linked to the global economy. In Yucatan, according to INEGI,
the participation of the tertiary sector in GDP. it grew from 62% in 1970 to 74% in 2002;
and since 1990 the metropolitan area of ​Mérida already generated 96% of the product of
the commerce and services sector in the entity. Similar figures are presented by the
employed population in the state, since in February 2000 53% of it was concentrated in the
trade and services sector. This same figure for the municipality of Mérida amounted to
71%. Between 1990 and 2009 the EAP of the tertiary sector of the ZMM grew from 45.5
to 55.2% (Table 1).
This configuration of a "functional region" to the urban economy of Mérida, where
the flow of fiber was replaced by that of people to the city, while that of information,
political power and capital emanate in the opposite direction, is measured by Human
Ecology as he "Degree of economic assimilation of the territory”(García, 1999: 145-152).
Consequently, the combination of this historically constructed central function and the
tertiary dynamism linked to the world economy generated significant changes in the spatial
organization of Mérida and its region. These factors of exogenous origin are now
combined with regional processes of equal force -as we have indicated lines back- and are
expressed spatially, in general terms, in processes ofurban expansion and metropolization,
understanding the latter as "the tendency of large cities to organize the areas that surround
them, both socially and economically, forming a clearly differentiated region" (Johnson,
1987: 136), as well as internal transformations of the city (Cárdenas, 2002). Both
processes, economic development and urban-regional transformations, are framed in a
dialectic of inclusion/exclusion that accentuates the social inequality and spatial
segregation inherited from the previous economic model, although with new characteristics
such as the accelerated privatization and fragmentation of the metropolitan space. , as we
will see in the next chapter (Map 2).
 TABLE 1. ZM MERIDA. EMPLOYED POPULATION BY SECTOR OF ECONOMIC ACTIVITY, 1990-2009

Employed population 1990 Employed population 2009

primary secondary tertiary primary secondary tertiary

fish c c
tra co t o s fishi tra co t o
m m s
i n ns r m e n n ns r m e
total u total u
n s tr a n r g s tr a n r
uc d ic v uc d ic
g f a a f a v
tio e ti i ti e ti i
a o o n o o
n n c o n c
n s d r s
r a e n a e
d n s a n
m d m d s
a a tr n a tr
n a i t a
t
i n m i n
i
m s a s
o o
a p l p
n o n
l a o
a rt a rt
a q n
n
q u d
d
u a e
e
a c l
l
c u e
e
u l c
c
l t t
t
t u r
r
u r i
i
r e c
c
e i
i
t t
y y
ZM of Merida 218,276 11,169 44,578 16,857 41,796 10,704 78,714 277,222 4,073 51,320 19,359 85,907 16,314 100,249

Konkal 2,111 511 376 172 395 60 507 804 226 337 0 241

Kanasin 7,450 766 1,483 832 1,833 410 1,735 7,002 2,391 556 2,351 73 1,631

Merida 184,636 5,157 37,113 13,896 36,500 8,995 70,686 242,819 61 39,718 18,660 76,618 15,017 92,745

Progress 11,462 2,665 1,703 935 1,340 702 3,067 13,606 4,012 998 55 3,612 1,093 3,836

They teach 763 302 188 33 56 26 106 200 63 105 32

uman 11,854 1,768 3,715 989 1,672 511 2,613 12,791 7,924 88 2,884 131 1,764

Sources: INEGI, XI General Population and Housing Census 1990, and Economic Census 2009,
Interactive data consultation.

MAP 2. MERID METROPOLITAN AREA: HISTORICAL EVOLUTION OF THE URBAN AREA,

1906-2010
 Source: Iracheta, A. and J. Bolio (2012).
To the economic factors historically generated by the crisis of the henequen industry, such as
the geographic and sectoral concentration of the most dynamic activities (commerce and
services in Mérida) and the alleviation of rural unemployment that the rise of Cancún meant,
came to added in the last two decades a set of effects generated by the re-entry of the region
in the world market and the appearance of new activities. This time the link would not be the
export of henequen, but rather the promotion of a new urban productive base, based mainly
on activities linked to the world market and foreign investment in the 1990s, and to an
explosive real estate market during this century.
In this way, the Mérida region transitioned from an agro-export economy to a
modern tertiarized economy, based on trade and regional-scale services without first going
through a process of industrialization, as did most of the regional metropolises in Mexico.
It should be noted that the informal sector of the economy is insignificant compared to that
of other similar cities; To this contributes the already mentioned offer of low-skill jobs in
Cancun and the "Riviera Maya", as well as an accelerated migration to the United States
(California, in particular) from municipalities in the south and east of the entity, where
detect the highest degrees of marginalization, according to INEGI and the National
Population Council (CONAPO).
 Table 2. POPULATION GROWTH IN THE METROPOLITAN AREA OF MÉRIDA. 1970-2010
-Thousands of inhabitants-
MUNICIPAL 1970 1980 1990 COUNT 2000 COUNT 2010
ITY 1995 2005 DEFINITIVE
CONKAL 4.1 5.9 6.4 7.0 7.7 8.5 9.1
KANASIN 6.3 7.1 24.5 33.1 39.2 51.8 78.7
MERIDA 241.9 424.5 556.8 649.8 705.1 781.1 830.7
PROGRESS 21.3 30.2 37.8 43.9 48.8 49.5 53.9
UCU 1.4 2.0 2.4 2.8 2.9 3.0 3.5
UMAN 14.1 17.3 39.3 45.9 49.1 53.2 51.0
ZMM 289.1 487.0 667.2 782.5 852.8 947.1 1`026.9
Source: INEGI: General Censuses and Population and Housing Counts.

MÉRIDA AND ITS REGION TODAY. A METROPOLITAN PERSPECTIVE

In recent years, the urban expansion of Mérida has adopted a very different territorial form
than it had in the past. The changes in economic activity and the unusual boom in the real
estate market fostered by the concentration of land ownership in the city and its northern
periphery, add to an erroneous planning scheme to jointly generate a polycentric expansion
(explosion) with distant nuclei and isolated, diffuse limits, large empty spaces and growing
trends of urban dislocation, rapid motorization and environmental devastation (Graph 1).
GRAPH 1. METROPOLITAN AREA OF MÉRIDA: REGISTERED MOTOR VEHICLES IN CIRCULATION, 2000-2009
 Source: Iracheta, A. and J. Bolio, 2012
Despite its slow demographic growth and high levels of inequality, Mérida and
other municipal capitals such as Kanasín, Umán, Progreso and Conkal, are constantly
expanding, incorporating the regional periphery and small towns, such as Cholul, Caucel,
Chichí, Dzityá and Ucú. within a vast and increasingly complex metropolitan system. This
peculiar urban configuration is generating, as a functional and/or spatial unit, a complex
city in which more than one authority makes decisions about its organization and
operation.
The growth of Mérida and its immediate region, as we have already explained, was
considered slow until the early 1970s, when they began to undergo radical changes in their
urbanization process. By that date, the formation of a metropolitan area began to be clearly
outlined with an influence in terms of employment, supply and services that was felt to a
greater or lesser degree up to the limits of the old Henequen Zone. In a more precise way
and based on the criteria of delimitation of zones
metropolitan areas established by SEDESOL (on cit,2006) and redefined by a
Comprehensive Metropolitan Development Program for Mérida (Bolio, 2011), in 2010 this
ZM made up of the municipalities of Mérida, Kanasín, Umán, Progreso, Conkal and Ucú
already had 1 million 27 thousand inhabitants. This redefinition of the area included
Progreso among the metropolitan municipalities officially delimited by SEDESOL, using
the same four criteria as in that study, namely: urban character, functional integration,
urban planning and policy, and distance from the central city (Map 3).
MAP 3. DELIMITATION OF THE ZM OF MÉRIDA AND ITS MUNICIPALITIES

Source: Iracheta, A. and J. Bolio, 2012

This historical process of urbanization shows a pattern of horizontal and expansive

physical growth starting from the capital city, giving rise to a diffuse and fragmented
metropolis; the decline of the henequen activity and the rise of the real estate market in the
periphery have been some of the elements that led to the current configuration of the
metropolitan urban system, characterized by an urban area that grows along the main
access roads to the city central (Municipality of Mérida), forming a conurbation or
continuous city with Kanasín and metropolitan corridors such as those of Umán and
Progress, which fulfill different functions and promote a strong trend of expansion
– emptying of inner urban areas. This most recent phase of the process was reinforced with
the constitutional reforms that gave rise to a new Agrarian Law in 1993 and opened up to
the formal real estate market a huge ejidal area around Mérida and other cities in the ZM
and along the main road links. . A broader and more detailed exposition of this complex
process was developed in a recent work (Bolio, 2006: 179-224).

Metropolitan urban structure and uses of the territory

The remarkable territorial expansion of the last three decades shows that the urban area has
grown on average 80% regarding the beginning of its accelerated expansion in the 1980s;
The metropolitan area of ​Mérida increased at an average annual rate of 4.4% in 30 years
(1980-2010), while the population in the same area grew at a lower rate of 2.3% per year,
going from 487 thousand 047 to 1 million 027 thousand inhabitants. Horizontal and
dispersed urbanization is the growth pattern of the ZMM, whose territorial composition
includes the following elements as shown in the following map 4:
MAP 4. METROPOLITAN AREA OF MÉRIDA: URBAN-METROPOLITAN STRUCTURE

SOURCE: Iracheta, A. and J. Bolio, 2012

 ● An extensive peri-urban zone (composed of the potential territorial reserve
of the PDU 2003 of the City of Mérida) "oversupply" more than 30 thousand
hectares to develop. In these areas, the most distant land (the cheapest) has been
used, with potential for the location of uses that require large areas of land (golf
courses, industrial parks and particularly mega housing projects). Outside this
radius of influence, there are still predominantly Mayan-speaking police stations or
rural towns (with high levels of poverty and marginalization).
● Satellite cities that mostly represent a series of dispersed housing
complexes, which due to their size should cover functions typical of a city and that
together with the 16 police stations or peripheral urban localities (of which 6
belong to Mérida and the rest to 4 of metropolitan municipalities), make up an
apparently polynuclear metropolitan scheme, with average distances between each
urban settlement of 6.5 km
● In these areas, the process of urban growth without proper planning and
scant government control maintains accelerated changes in the use of rural land to
urban use; caused by the sale of large areas of land that belonged to the ejidos and
that today have been incorporated for residential use, which has given rise to an
extremely expansive urban structure.
● Finally, a conurbated central urban area can be seen that grows horizontally
along at least 7 of the main access roads to the city of Mérida, where there are a
multitude of empty properties within the urban area of ​the ZMM that have not been
occupied. because speculative pressures predominate, materializing in high
expectations of economic gain, obtaining private benefit at the expense of public
investment.

The predominance of the city of Mérida as the highest ranking settlement within
the state and metropolitan urban system is absolute; it concentrates the exchange of people,
goods and services of all levels and types, in turn promoting the progressive increase in
land prices, becoming one of the reasons for the emergence of urban sub-centers
that absorb the increases in population that is not able to access land in the central city.
The importance of Mérida has in turn led to another historical phenomenon of
segregation of the low-income population; Densification levels within the city mark and
differentiate the areas where the population of the different economic strata lives,
maintaining the historic center as the supplier and meeting point for the population in
general. Historically, the northern portion of the city has registered the lowest occupancy
levels and high land prices. The construction of Paseo de Montejo marked the settlement
of high-income families and therefore the area was endowed with infrastructure and
equipment, a trend that in the present is maintained.

Urban nodes and corridors

Within the city of Mérida there are threehub nodesof services and facilities that also
function as points of reference for the population: (Map 5).

MAP 5. MÉRIDA, FACILITIES AND SERVICES CONCENTRATOR NODES WITHIN THE CITY

Source: Own elaboration based on the Urban Development Program of the Municipality of
Mérida, 2009.
 ● Node 1. Concentrator of industry and commercial areas typemalls:
located to the north of the city and which responds to the expansion trend of the
ZMM urban sprawl to the north, favoring the conurbation with Progreso giving rise
to the formation of a metropolitan corridor.
● Node 2. Concentrator of regional coverage equipment(universities,
cultural centers and hospitals) and services that attract people from the
metropolitan municipalities and the rest of the entity, the influence exerted by its
level of coverage has contributed to the fact that the central city remains the main
destination for the pendulum trips that the population of the ZM makes daily.
● Node 3. Airport area: point of communication and exchange with
international influence of the entity.
The phenomenon of metropolization is favoring the formation ofconurbation
corridorsalong the main connecting roads of the metropolis; The link between the central
city and the satellite cities is integrating intermediate zones between one city and another
into the urban dynamics, giving rise to occupation pressure phenomena on rural police
stations, transforming them into suburban space that is occupied in an anarchic manner due
to the lack of a control strategy and land use planning of the metropolitan corridors.
The vehicle counts registered in the access roads to Mérida allow the identification
of seven corridors, each one of them with its own characteristics and different dynamics;
the specialization in certain economic activities, the use of cheaper land than in urban
centers and the potential for locating activities and intensities that do not fit in the
consolidated urban area (golf courses, industrial parks, mega housing projects), are some
of the incentives that have made horizontal urbanization the growth pattern of the ZMM
(Table 3).
 TABLE 1. METROPOLITAN AREA OF MÉRIDA: CONCENTRATION OF VEHICULAR TRAFFIC AND LAND USE IN
METROPOLITAN CORRIDORS, 2009-2015
Annual Average Daily Traffic
TDPA
Traffic (TDPA) concentratio
metropolitan corridor TMCA projection
n
2015
2001 2005 2009 2009 2015

Merida-Progreso 8,460 10,602 15,176 7.58 23,524 26.44 31.51

Merida-Ucú 4,253 5,068 9,372 10.38 16,949 16.33 22.70

Merida-Uman and Ent. Poxilla-Merida 6,401 9,428 10,334 6.17 14,801 18.01 19.83

Merida-Kanasin-Acanceh 5,345 6,271 6,867 3.18 8,287 11.97 11.10

Merida-Tixpehual 3,868 4,448 4,778 2.67 5,597 8.32 7.50

Merida-Kanasin-Teya 6,732 3,955 5,985 -1.46 5,480 10.43 7.34

Merida-Conkal 5,357 6,628 4,878 -1.16 4,547 8.50 6.09

Total (APTD) 40,417 46,400 57,390 4.48 74,653 100.00 100.00

Note: The data corresponds to the weighted average of the TDPA in the sections
corresponding to each indicated road.
Source: Own elaboration from SCT. Road Data, eds. 2002, 2006 and 2010, corresponding to
the years 2001, 2005 and 2009.

The existing relationship between the land uses that each corridor groups together
and its consolidation responds to a strong dynamic of transport flows of people and goods
linked to access to sources of work, mainly towards the City of Mérida and the Port of
Progreso; This axis is part of the pillars of the economy of the Yucatan Peninsula, so its
influence is regional. The Mérida - Progreso corridor is a pole of imminent conurbation
and a strategic axis for the location of industrial and logistics activities due to its
accessibility to regional and metropolitan markets; With the high flows registered in the
highway that connects them, in a horizon to 2015 the traffic will increase 5% with respect
to the registered in 2009, the TMCA of vehicles that circulate through this road is the
highest in the ZMM, the daily traffic in annual average (TDPA) is just over 15 thousand
cars. The industrial, commercial and service potential of the area increases the occupation
pressures in both towns and in the corridor, projects such as the construction of the
Museum of Mayan Culture, a logistics platform, an inland port, a container terminal in the
port of height and private recreational complexes attached to the highway (soccer stadium,
gyms,spas, Coliseo Yucatán) are little compared to what the arrival of
new companies linked to the extraction of hydrocarbons (Ramírez, 2007: 35-49). The
Mérida - Umán corridor concentrates a TDPA of more than 10,000 vehicles and the
functional relations between Umán and Mérida include the port of Progreso due to the
industrial specialization of the former; the population dynamics of Umán is in clear
stagnation as well as the vehicular flows of its corridor; however, its importance lies in the
fact that it is the door of the ZMM towards the state of Campeche and the rest of the
country.
The Mérida – Ucú corridor will register the highest vehicle flows in the ZMM due
to the construction of Ciudad Ucú and the consolidation of Ciudad Caucel; The high
tertiary specialization of the corridor is associated with the installation of the
aforementioned housing megaprojects and the high dependence that remains with the city
of Mérida, a situation that favors daily commutes of more than 9,000 vehicles, a figure that
by 2015 will increase 6%. . The Mérida-Kanasín-Teya and Mérida-Conkal corridors are
the lowest level in the hierarchy due to vehicle flows, in particular for the former it is
estimated that it will lose 3% of the flows it currently registers due to the appearance of
other population attracting poles inside the ZM (Map 6).
MAP 6. METROPOLITAN AREA OF MÉRIDA: CONURBATION AND FUNCTIONAL INTEGRATION CORRIDORS, 2010.

Source: Own elaboration based on SCT. Road Data, eds. 2002, 2006 and 2010, corresponding
to the years 2001, 2005 and 2009.
 Once the levels of urbanization and dispersion of the territory have been defined,
those localities with more than 15,000 inhabitants are identified as central places -Mérida,
Kanasín, Umán and Progreso- and the emergence of new urban centers and sub-centers
with mobility needs. There are at least 6 types ofurban settlement subsystemsaround the
capital city and are characterized by forming a system of disjointed and dispersed human
settlements:
1. Merida, Central City:the trend of emptying the city is reinforced: greater
dynamics in peri-urban locations.
● Caucel - Ucú urban subsystem: Priority Attention Area for national social
policy, due to its high degree of marginalization and the high impact of the housing
developments of Caucel II and Ciudad Ucú. High urban density and road
saturation.
● Komchén – Chablekal – Conkal – Cholul urban subsystem: Pressure from
land occupation with high agricultural and environmental value
2. Central Place: Progress
● Chelem – Chicxulub Puerto – Progreso – Campestre Flamboyanes urban
subsystem: Residential occupation of the first dune, with serious environmental and
social consequences. Very low demographic dynamism. In the medium term it
could lose population.
3. Central place: Kanasin
● Kanasín – Leona Vicario – San José Tzal urban subsystem: New areas of
expansion, greater urban dynamics and concentration of poor settlements.
4. Central place Uman:Containment of population growth.

socio-spatial segregation

Urban segregation or socio-spatial segregation is related to the distribution conditions of

social groups in the urban space. The greater the concentration of a group in a given area,
the greater the segregation. From this perspective, segregation is considered in this paper
as "the existing inequalities in a city in terms of access to resources
materialized in the urban space, due to the residential location and the unequal distribution
of facilities, urban services, monetary income and social welfare” (Queiroz, et al 2005:204
cited in Pérez, 2010). According to these authors, urban segregation can be analyzed from
three dimensions:
1. Due to the spatial concentration of a social group in specific areas
2. By the degree of social homogeneity in residential areas
3. Due to the subjective perception that residents have of “objective segregation”.

The analysis contemplated here is based on the first dimension, which, as has been
analyzed in the Social Profile, associates the conditions of urban segregation with the
spatial concentration of low-income population groups in different areas of the city of
Mérida, but to a greater degree in peripheral urban colonies to the south and south west of
the City of Mérida. The selected quantitative indicators that help to argue about the
territorial configuration of this phenomenon in the City of Mérida, correspond to the
location of Urban Priority Attention Zones (ZAP-U) that the Social Development
Secretariat (SEDESOL) through the undersecretariat of Urban Development and Territorial
Planning has identified as population conglomerates that due to their conditions are the
object of different social actions aimed at overcoming their conditions of poverty.
Another indicator analyzed corresponds to the location of the Mayan-speaking
population. Its importance as a living culture and splendid past is nationally and
internationally recognized; however, this cultural richness contrasts with the situation of
poverty that prevails not only in their communities, but also in the places to which they
migrate, where they face savage processes of transformation of their community and
traditional life that need to be studied from the perspective of sociology. urban and social
anthropology. So we have that although until the year 2000 it was considered that the
highest percentage of the Mayan-speaking population of the municipality of Mérida was
distributed in peripheral towns and police stations such as Caucel, Cholul, Molas,
Dzununcán, San José Tzal, Xmatkuil and in numerous former -Henequen haciendas
belonging to this municipality, but not in the capital, since 2005 the phenomenon of
urbanization of the Mayan towns is growing, finding that according to data from the
INEGI 2005 Population and Housing Count, only in the Mérida-Kanasín conurbation and
in the south of Mérida, there are approximately
70,000 Mayan speakers (82% of the total number of urban Mayans), where the largest
number of people living in poverty are concentrated.
Regarding segregation in the city of Mérida linked to recreation and quality of life,
studies such as that of Pérez (ibidem, 2010) indicate that segregation conditions are also
associated with its urban structure, which, although historically it was deeply fragmented
Today it presents an urban system defined by a growing development of commercial real
estate capital and services that, through the placement of consumption nodes and
high-income residences, has accentuated this segregation. These functional differences,
associated with the symbolic ones (perception of the poor vs. the rich marginal area),
influence each area of ​life in the city, presenting segregation conditions that show that
some sectors have better income conditions, consumption capacity, access and accessibility
to services of all kinds, better skills, abilities and cultural capital; while in others the
limitations linked to their poverty prevail more (Pérez,on cit, 2010).
From the metropolitan point of view, it is evident that if we consider that more than
two thirds of the population does not have the same possibilities of accessing basic
services such as equipment and public spaces, and even worse, not having enough income
to cover housing needs (one of the factors that contributes the most to the reproduction of
segregation patterns), the metropolitan scenario shows deep inequalities that prevent the
city from being generalized as a metropolis with adequate conditions to improve the
quality of life of its inhabitants. The new periphery of Kanasín and the strip of precarious
housing in the Progreso swamp clearly illustrate this statement.

CHANGES IN LAND USE AND IMPACT ON THE ENVIRONMENT

The analysis of land use change is relevant due to the strong transformations of terrestrial
ecosystems and deterioration of biodiversity, which through various historical events of an
economic and social nature (the rise of the henequen activity, the development of
agriculture mechanized, grazing, fires; and recently the expansion and urban dispersion of
the ZMM), have led to the loss of important portions of
vegetation that, seen over time, show the magnitude of deforestation and consequent
fragmentation and destruction of biodiversity (Ramírez, 2011: 29-34).
Recent indicators have proven that the destruction of biodiversity and forests not
only affect the native ecosystems of the territory, but also cause strong repercussions in the
atmosphere, by disturbing the global climate and putting important sources of carbon
sequestration at risk. As a priority, this analysis focused on identifying the areas with loss
of forest cover and the uses on which the advance of the urban frontier is taking place, to
the extent that both factors favor the loss of the potential for sustainable use of resources.
and of the environmental services that they provide to the population; they alter
hydrological and biogeochemical cycles; they promote the extermination of important
portions of the jungle; they accelerate global climate change and deteriorate the habitat in
general. According to the results obtained, the important soil surfaces that human activities
in the ZMM have gained from the native vegetation stand out. The land use most affected
by these changes has been the lowland forest, which in 9 years lost 25% of its surface
(more than 37,000 hectares), which shows the serious deterioration of native vegetation
during this period alone ( Graph 2).
GRAPH 2, ZMM: GAINS AND LOSSES OF LAND USE 2000 – 2009 (HAS).

Source: Iracheta, A. and J. Bolio, 2012

As can be seen in the graphs, one of the most important forest losses is associated
with urban expansion, which occurs particularly in the eastern and northeastern areas of
the city of Mérida; in an area considered a biological corridor (POETY, 2006), which
which makes it an area of ​high ecological fragility. In relation to the contributions of the
different uses to the urban zone, the advance of the urban zone on the surfaces of greatest
value and environmental fragility in the ZMM stands out; that is to say, on the remnants of
forest that until the year 2000 were still preserved, thus affecting a little more than 5
thousand hectares of low deciduous forest or "mountain" as it is popularly designated. In
urban use, on the one hand, a gain of almost 11 thousand hectares can be seen, distributed
mainly between the urban periphery of the city of Mérida, its peri-urban police stations and
urban areas. On the other hand, the loss of more than a thousand hectares stands out; a fact
associated with the large peripheral subdivisions to the north of the urban area of ​Mérida,
which at the beginning of the year 2000 began to be dismantled and divided into
subdivisions to be urbanized; and that nevertheless remain unoccupied and have been
replaced by important areas of secondary vegetation.

Urban planning, accomplice of dispersed urbanization

From the regulatory point of view, one of the most important milestones in the accelerated
process of urban expansion occurred from the Mérida Urban Development Director
Program (PDU 2003-2010), which opened up the possibility of dividing up and building in
areas outside the peripheral ring road. and in rural police stations, which began a new
process of urban expansion that until then had been restricted to the peripheral ring as a
barrier to urban growth. The same happened with Progreso (2006), Umán (2007) and
Kanasín and Conkal (2008). All these PDU promote the incorporation of new areas to
urban growth without measuring the burdensome externalities that this dispersed
urbanization entails.
As of 2003, various housing projects were approved (mostly regulated through
Partial Urban Development Programs or PPDU) that have oriented expansion and
increased the value of land in the ZMM by being attractive to commercial activities and
services, linked with the potential population markets foreseen for each real estate
development. According to Table 4, from 2003 to 2010, 95% of the authorized housing
area has been developed in the city of Mérida, highlighting the creation by the state
government of satellite cities such as Ciudad Caucel and the projected Ciudad Ucú, whose
capacity could solve the accumulated demand for housing in the ZMM until 2030. To this
urban dynamic guided by the multiplication of dispersed housing complexes, which due to
their size constitute centers and sub-centers that should cover functions typical of a city,
housing complexes such as Las Américas have been added. to the north, Los Héroes to the
east and Los Almendros to the west of Grupo SADASI and the Villa Magna complexes of
Promotora Residencial, in addition to maquiladora parks, techno-scientific poles, higher
education corridors, commercial axes and nodes, public facilities and poultry and livestock
complexes that They constitute the main sources of employment in the metropolis but
require strong public investment in the modernization of road infrastructure and
communications.
In this expansive, dispersed and disjointed process, an induced planning process
that balances the location of sources of employment, structures urban growth and guides
the distribution of activities in the territory is not perceived, thus resulting in a fragmented
metropolis, whose real estate dynamics It is attractive for the rest of the metropolitan
municipalities that make up the ZMM and that also see an opportunity to attract part of the
metropolitan growth through the modernization of roads and communications, as
expressed in this paragraph:
“Between 2005 and 2030, the Metropolitan Area of ​Mérida will grow significantly in its
population, more than 34.1%, as in the number of homes, 72.9%. Although the economic
realities will surely manifest themselves when real estate pressure is excessive in other
suburban municipalities, in any case in the case of Umán it is necessary to take actions to
attract a part of that metropolitan growth” (Partial Urban Development Program of Oxcum
and Hunxectamán , Umán, Yucatán, January 2010, p.6).

It is then the public and private megaprojects, closely assisted by neoliberal public
policies, that shape the structure and landscape of the ZMM, with the great real
estate-housing capital being the central protagonist of urban development in Mérida. The
degree of territorial occupation of the ZMM has gone from 2 inhabitants per hectare in
1980 to 5 in 2010; At the urban level, an increasingly low housing density can be seen:
70.5 inhab./ha in 1980, to 35.1 inhab./ha in 2010, which accounts for the phenomenon of
expansion-dispersion of the recent process of metropolitan urbanization. Within the
municipalities, a phenomenon of reduction in population density and proliferation of
subdivisions and mega housing projects outside the consolidated urban area prevails,
increasing costs due to the introduction of infrastructure and equipment. Kanasín is the
most densely inhabited town after Mérida; the increase in their employment in the
In recent decades, it has exceeded the ZMM average and is the municipality with the
highest degree of urbanization. In Ucú the natural tendency of growth has a dynamic of
stagnation; However, with the construction of Ciudad Ucú, the municipality will be
subjected to an induced growth that will modify the form of land occupation and the
socio-cultural patterns that it currently has when the construction of more than 56,000
homes is carried out.
Overall, if the increase in authorized urban area via housing complexes in the city
of Mérida is compared, in 7 years (2003 to 2009) the continuous urban area (including its
surrounding municipalities) has increased by 5,722 hectares; which represents 33% of
additional urban surface to the one that the Urban Development Program of Mérida 2003
defined as urban surface for that year (17,280 has). Of this new area, currently half is
practically urbanized, while the rest constitutes land in the process of housing occupation
(2009-2025). The largest expected increase is from the authorization of Ciudad Ucú;
housing megaproject that almost doubles the accumulated historical level of peripheral
housing land in the ZMM. According to the following table, from 2003 to 2010, 95% of
the formal (authorized) housing surface has been developed in the city of Mérida,
highlighting the creation of satellite cities or large urbanizations such as Ciudad Caucel and
Las Américas (Table 4). .
TABLE 4. METROPOLITAN AREA OF MÉRIDA: PERIPHERAL HOUSING DEVELOPMENTS, 2003-2025

MERIDA 5,456 95.35 133,517 96.07 2003-2025

Caucel City 885 15.47 30,000 21.59 2003-2025 PPDU of Caucel
real montejo 230 4.02 7,500 5.40 2003 S/D
high breeze 140 2.45 2,384 1.72 2005-2010 High Breeze PPDU
The Americas 110 1.92 5,000 3.60 2005-2009 Fractionation PPDU
The Americas
The heroes 500 8.74 13,117 9.44 2009-2015 PPDU of Chichi Suarez
Ucu City 3,000 52.43 56800 40.87 2010-2025 S/D
Xcanatún Hacienda 105 1.84 5,000 3.60 2005-2010 PPDU Hacienda Xcanatún
great santa fe 51 0.89 1,408 1.01 2007 S/D
The Americas II 205 3.58 6,226 4.48 2008 S/D
St. Peter's Cholul 185 3.23 4,953 3.56 2009-2015 PPDU Fractionation
St. Peter's Cholul
Santa Cruz I and II 45 0.79 1,129 0.81 2008 S/D
CONKAL 180 3.15 2,770 1.99 2008-2010
Conkal Villas, Conkal Gardens 37 0.65 1,000 0.72 2008 S/D
Vega del Mayab 143 2.50 1,770 1.27 2010 In authorization process
KANASIN 86 1.50 2,698 1.94 2008-2010
Villas del Oriente and Los 52 0.91 2,150 1.55 2008 S/D
Encinos
The Pines of Mulchechén, Real 34 0.59 548 0.39 2009-2010 S/D
Mulchechen, Hills of
Mulchechén, Lomas de Kanasín,
San Ángel II, San Jorge II,
Santa Cecilia, Álamos
de Oriente

Source: Prepared by the authors based on the Department of Urban Development and Environment of the
Government of the State of Yucatán, Authorized Subdivisions, and Partial Urban Development Programs
2003-2009 published in the Official Government Gazette of the State of Yucatán.

The following table shows the annual surface area of ​land occupied by
housing developments until 2010; however, the largest expected increase is the
housing developments in the authorization process in Ucú (3,000 has), Mérida (146
has) and Conkal (144 has); which added to the increase observed between 2003 and
2009 will constitute a total of 9,012 hectares, 52% of additional residential land to
the urban surface registered in 2003 (Table 5).
TABLE 5. METROPOLITAN AREA OF MÉRIDA: PERIPHERAL HOUSING DEVELOPMENTS IN THE AUTHORIZATION PROCESS,
2010
Municipality / Name of Type Surface % / Total No. of % / Total
the development (has) Metropolitan houses Metropolitan

MERIDA 146 4.42 1,530 2.52

1 New Agrarian Reform Social 0.7 0.02 25 0.04

2 San Jose Tzal Social 12.6 0.38 413 0.68

3 Fontana Social 10.1 0.30 501 0.82

4 Bicentennial Social 34.4 1.04 1 0.00

5 Bogdan Residential 0.9 0.03 24 0.04

6 dzoyola Social 31.4 0.95 486 0.80

7 Cocoyoles Springs Residential 8.8 0.27 79 0.13

8 Puerta Real Residential Social 47.4 1.43 1 0.00

CONKAL 143.6 4.34 1779.0 2.93

9 Vega del Mayab Social 143.4 4.33 1,770 2.91

10 Holy Ines Social 0.2 0.01 9 0.01

KANASIN 13.7 0.41 532.0 0.88

11 Saint Angel II Social 1.0 0.03 52 0.09

 Municipality / Name of Type Surface % / Total No. of % / Total
the development (has) Metropolitan houses Metropolitan

MERIDA 146 4.42 1,530 2.52

12 Saint George II Social 0.5 0.02 25 0.04

13 Santa Cecilia Social 2.0 0.06 92 0.15

14 Emerald Point Social 10.1 0.31 363 0.60

UMAN 4.2 0.13 150 0.25

15 The Pearls XXI Centuries Social 4.2 0.13 150 0.25

UCU 3,000 90.70 56,800 93.43

16 Ucu City Social 3,000 90.70 56,800 93.43

TOTAL ZMM 3,308 100 60,791 100

Source: Own elaboration based on the Secretary of Urban Development and Environment of
the Government of the State of Yucatán: Subdivisions in the Authorization Process, November
2010, and on Partial Programs of Urban Development 2003-2009 published in the Official
Gazette of the State Government from Yucatan.

Urban voids, an inevitable consequence

The predominance of the interests of the real estate market and the criteria of profitability
over the stewardship of the State and the safeguarding of the public interest in the
development of the city, generates urban growth "by leaps and bounds" and the appearance
of large empty spaces, both urban and interurban. According to an initial process of
identification of urban voids, it is estimated that in the ZMM there is a vacant land surface
(free of buildings) of at least 2,600 hectares, whose distribution has been the effect of
differentiated housing construction processes in the ZMM, in accordance with the
following:
● The largest number of vacant properties greater than 1 hectare (and less than
that surface) is located in the northern portion of the city of Mérida, in the areas
with the highest added value, where the land does not present the best aptitudes for
urban use, due to its proximity to the Yucatecan coast and the importance of the
environmental value of said area.
 ● In the municipality of Progreso, the absence of vacant land within urban
areas stands out; however, large industrial estates larger than 4 hectares prevail in
their suburban police stations (Chelem and Chicxulub Puerto).
● A significant proportion of large urban voids (greater than 1 hectare) are
located to the south west of the city of Mérida, in areas differentiated by the
predominance of industrial uses and environmentally deteriorated areas in their
surroundings (Mérida-Umán corridor).
● There are also large areas of vacant land in areas with a predominance of
precarious housing and deficiencies in infrastructure, services (particularly
drainage) and equipment.

This phenomenon of urbanization occurs mostly in popular neighborhoods

in the process of consolidation located to the east of the city of Mérida and in
suburban police stations, both in its northern portion (Mérida-Conkal corridor), and
in its southern portion (Mérida-Kanasín corridor). ), where there is a significant
proportion of urban vacant areas greater than one hectare, but mostly
agglomerations of urban vacant areas of less than this surface area. In the northern
portion, important agglomerations of urban empties stand out, located in residential
subdivisions of medium interest such as Nuevo Yucatán; however, the largest
proportion is located in peripheral popular neighborhoods in the process of
consolidation such as Leandro Valle, Santa María and suburban police stations such
as Motul and Chichí Suárez. In the southern portion, the agglomeration of a large
number of urban voids of less than one hectare, both in popular and precarious
housing colonies, as well as in subdivisions of social interest in the municipality of
Kanasín, also stands out. The large urban voids are located in the San Pedro Noh
Pat neighborhood, on the Mérida-Kanasín corridor.
The arrangement and distribution of urban voids in the ZMM correspond to
three general processes (Map 7):
 MAP 7. METROPOLITAN AREA OF MÉRIDA: URBAN VOIDS

SOURCE: Iracheta, A. and J. Bolio, 2012

● Concentration of large urban voids in residential and mixed areas with the
highest land value, speculative processes, and urbanization pressures (Mérida and
Progreso).
● Greater concentration of agglomeration of urban empties between half a
hectare and one hectare in popular neighborhoods in the process of consolidation
and in neighborhoods with precarious settlements.
● Less availability of urban voids in areas where population processes have
corresponded to their natural growth (Umán and Conkal). It highlights the potential
of the vacant peripheral land identified in these areas, to contain its expansion and
consolidate its urban structure.

RELEVANT FINDINGS OF THE URBAN REORGANIZATION IN THE ZM OF

MÉRIDA

metropolitan organization

The Metropolitan Area of ​the City of Mérida can be considered as a metropolitan region of
great complexity, which is characterized by presenting a peculiar dynamic of
demographic and economic growth and concentration in its central city (Mérida), growth
that has accelerated in recent decades and has largely structured the current urban
configuration of the peninsular territory. Said concentration of population and investment
has resulted in strong regional imbalances, while defining Mérida as the central city of the
Yucatan Peninsula and the international city of the so-called Mexican Southeast. In
territorial terms, in just 30 years the urban area of ​the ZMM doubled the size it had up to
1970, without having a metropolitan planning instrument to guide its ordering. This has
generated a lack of control in urban expansion, which is reflected in a large number of
suburban settlements that are subject to the dynamics of the functional relationship of their
economy with the city of Mérida, as well as changes in land use or conurbation with the
urban sprawl. , generating real estate benefits derived from its location in various suburban
municipalities, but in exchange for unforeseen consequences for the economy, the social
fabric and the environment. Therefore, the function of Mérida and its metropolitan area
allows us to speak of a regional metropolis that is reinforced and complicated day by day
to the extent that the flows of capital, goods, services and people flow more intensely
between this area. its port and the peninsular network of cities.

Among some of the causes that explain this problem are the following:
● Planning systems that act separately without linking socio-economic
development planning, territorial planning (state, regional, metropolitan, municipal
and urban) and environmental planning into a single system.
● Predominance of sectoral planning over spatial planning and, therefore, low
government attention to regional and metropolitan planning. - There is neither a
mechanism nor a structure that guarantees the effective participation of citizens in
the decisions of metropolitan development. This is the case with initiatives such as
Ciudad Ucú, the Science Park, a new and unnecessary ring road and even a fast
Mérida-Cancún train.
 ● There is no comprehensive or long-term vision that defines the course of
state development, from which all government plans and programs of each state
and municipal administration derive.
● Inefficiency of the current territorial planning instruments, their low link
with development and environmental planning, and very particularly the lack of
inter-municipal and inter-state metropolitan coordination mechanisms and
instruments. Profitability has replaced the order and functionality of cities and
territories in urban plans and programs as the guiding criteria.
● The evolution and demographic structure and the territorial occupation and
urbanization process, in which a strong dynamic and lack of control in urban
expansion has been identified with low coverage of services and infrastructures and
a relevant presence of informal settlements and environmental deterioration. The
excessive growth of the urban sprawl with a dispersed pattern and low density,
accelerates the problems of informality, precariousness, fragmentation and social
segregation in the Central City (Mérida-Kanasín-Umán Conurbation) and in
Progreso.

urban reorganization

The four cities, Mérida, Kanasín, Progreso and Umán, grew in extension in an evident way,
but also saw their urban structure transformed to the extent that the new economic
functions and new land uses were demanding it. Let's look at these changes in particular:
MERIDA. The monocentric structure that prevailed until the 1980s was
reconfigured with the appearance of new attraction nodes in the northern sector of the
urban space. One could not yet speak of a polycentric structure, since these new nodes,
such as the commercial areas around the largemalls, present excessively specialized land
use and restrict their access to population levels with high and medium purchasing power
and to certain age groups. Their access limitations in terms of urban mobility also have an
influence, since they are designed and function linked to the automobile rather than to
public transport and pedestrians. Therefore, they are not properly subcenters with a scale
appropriate, suitable mixes of land use, general accessibility in socioeconomic and
mobility terms and uniform location in all directions of the city.
The spatial models generated in the pre-global stage, Historic Center, Colonias
Ring (Colonias Circuit as border) and Fraccionamientos (Peripheral Ring as border), still
showed some physical continuity despite the rapid expansion of the latter. Since 2003, with
the entry into force of a new PDU that fostered urban growth beyond the Peripheral Ring
and the speculative "leapfrogs", a new and pernicious model of "diffuse" or "dispersed
city" appears that is generating dysfunctions urban and environmental deterioration. The
recent modernization of the peripheral ring is also fostering the accelerated urbanization of
its outer edges, where specialized and innovative complexes of economic activity appear,
such as the northern university corridor, between the exits to Cholul and Dzityá; numerous
large warehouses on the east and west, motels in all directions, and vertical complexes or
residential condominiums on both edges of the northeast sector. Inside the city, large urban
voids have been occupied for a long time by these commercial nodes, by office towers in
urban business corridors and, something deeply worrying, by casinos and gaming houses
(9 to date and 2 in the pipeline) that They are located in the north of the city and are
inducing profound sociocultural, economic, and urban changes. subject that requires
interdisciplinary study on its own.
KANASIN. Its explosive demographic growth in the last 15 years has expanded
the city further north than the traditional limit of the Mérida-Valladolid-Cancún highway,
and also to the east and southeast along the highways to Tixkokob and Acanceh. Dozens of
subdivisions, some with close to a thousand homes, have been annexed to the city in a
most anarchic manner. The urban surface increased four times its size with a clear road and
typological disarticulation between the traditional city and the crown of new subdivisions.
The urban equipment, already highly deficient in itself, continues to be concentrated in the
central nucleus, causing serious traffic congestion. This same dysfunctional centrality has
caused the occupation of the public space in this nucleus by informal commerce and
motorcycle taxis and rickshaws that make up for the deficiencies of public transport. The
most serious affectations undoubtedly occur in Kanasín, where it is urgent to satisfy road,
housing, infrastructure, equipment, and service needs.
basic supplies and transportation for a city of almost 80,000 inhabitants whose current
endowments are those of a population four times smaller.
PROGRESS. This port city does not grow demographically due to its almost zero
supply of urban land and housing for low and medium income groups. Its linear urban
structure extends without ceasing with summer residence developments to the east
(Uaymitún, San Bruno) that do not have any core of public services. A new bridge over the
Yucalpetén harbor harbor basin has opened up new opportunities for linear urban
expansion to the west (Chelem, Chuburná). The explosive growth of a recreational fleet
linked to summer tourism has intensified the occupation of the edges of this dock by
marinas, yacht clubs, workshops, bars and restaurants, which creates a node of attraction
for employment along with the old shipyard plant , packers and processors of fish products.
It is a node of attraction without supply of land and housing for the poor.
The center of Progreso is clearly congested and disorderly. A new municipal market
did not solve the problems of informal commerce in its streets and on the boardwalk and
continues to be the supply center for a coastal housing line with four locations and more
than 30 kilometers in length. The limitations of the physical environment and summer
property are being resolved with new housing complexes in the old “Flamboyanes”
subdivision, where 300 of the 550 families precariously settled on the banks of the swamp
between Progreso and Chicxulub are being relocated. This growth in the form of a "T"
occurs in a disjointed and distant way from the city and its sources of employment and
services, in addition to generating a strong and expensive dependence on interurban
transportation for those who live in this area. The articulation between urban and port
functions has not yet been fully resolved. Freight logistics and urban mobility come into
increasingly serious conflicts as port activity increases.
UMAN. In the mid-2000s, with the construction of two new power plants, a
furniture industrial park, various economic and social housing subdivisions, and numerous
industries located along the highway to Mérida and the railway, the linear conurbation
between Umán and Mérida was consolidated. Apart from this change, the urban structure
of Umán has not changed to a greater degree. New medium-sized subdivisions sprang up
on its southeast periphery and along the industrial corridor. The first ones
they were contiguous and articulated to the existing road structure. The physical size of the
city did not increase considerably and its monocentric functionality is maintained. The
primary road system is collapsing due to the proliferation of motorcycle taxis and
rickshaws that block vehicular circulation in the central area.

AS A COLOPHON

The reorientation of the state economy organized around Mérida was clearly favored by
economic globalization or globalization, but this change was also influenced by processes
inherited from a long history of primacy or urban centrality, national support policies in
critical stages and the peculiarities political and social aspects of regional culture. The
turning point can be located in the stage of modernization of the port of Progreso and the
promotion of foreign investment in the maquiladora export and hotel industry. A parallel
deployment of commerce, finance (central banks, insurance companies and automotive
distributors), control of telecommunications (radio, TV and digital telephony) and the rise
of specialized services linked to professional talent (hospitals, universities, research
centers, consulting companies) reached a regional scale that in some cases transcends the
peninsular limits.
The effects on the urban transformation of Mérida and the other cities of this ZM
are legible in the more extensive and predatory use of the interurban territory, the
intensification of road flows and urban mobility, the appearance of a dispersed city model
and a segregation more pronounced socio-spatial, which adds to poverty the distance factor
with respect to the services that the city offers. In more recent times, a series of new forms
or expressions of this metropolization process have emerged that require a more careful
reading, among which the following seem relevant to me:
● The fall in the substandard housing market due to lower demand, the rise in
peri-urban land prices and the drastic reduction in federal subsidies to this sector.
● The extension or widening of the territory and the localities absorbed by the
real estate market beyond the limits of the ZMM. Waste of land.
 ● The proliferation of casinos in the north of Mérida and its impact on the
urban structure, the economy (local savings) and family integration.
● An emerging attraction of high-income, long-distance migrants for
residency or higher education purposes. Impact on the supply of new types of
vertical or condominium residences.
● And finally, the limited response of the State and its public policy agenda to
the negative impacts of these processes, their risks in the medium term and the
social and public costs that arise from them.

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