Land Use Planning, Mobility and Historic Preservation in Aguascalientes City. Are Cultural Sustainability and Circular Economy Possible?

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Figure 1. Mobility and urban heritage in Aguascalientes City. Drawing made by Alejandro Acosta and Jéssica Rodríguez, January 2019

In recent years, Aguascalientes administrators have paid special attention to remodelling public spaces: streets, parks, squares and historic buildings façades. But with respect to preserving heritage buildings, government budgets represent a limitation, because they usually assign funds for remodelling public spaces, but this doesn’t often occur for remodelling the inside of these private historic buildings. And it so happens that in several countries, most of the historic buildings are private. So, even if society is interested in the preservation of this type of architecture, government budgets are usually destined for remodelling public spaces (in some cases, this means only the façades of buildings).

Historic buildings preservation has been difficult in Aguascalientes during the last three decades, probably because it hasn’t linked accurately the purpose of planning to reality. A possible solution is the inclusion of management as part of the city planning. Urban planning and management could improve the development of society, too.

Newer parking lots are being built in the ‘limited part of the city’ and some of them still involve the tearing down of heritage architecture (and also nowadays architecture). Besides, the new open space areas relocate inhabitants of the historic centre, so population density is reduced. As a result, in many cases only the façades of the historic buildings are left standing, to keep a historic streetscape.

We can observe the parking lots (areas in square metres) inside the “limited part of the city” and deduce that most of the 126 city blocks have parking lots. But the city blocks 5-7, 13-14, 19-25, 27, 29, 34-35, 38, 44, 51, 54, 59-61, 69-73, 78-79, 81, 83-85, 88-89, 92-93, 96, 98, 100, 102, 105-106, 113, 115, 117-118, 121-122 and 124 don’t include parking lots (Figure 1). The reason might be the block size or the concentration of historic properties.

The city blocks that contain from five to nine parking lots are: 9, 11, 43, 58, 87, 94, 109, 110 and 119. These cases mean there could be a problem in terms of heritage loss. Parking lots within blocks 109, 110, 43 are near to commercial stores in Victoria Street. This street contains many stores and nowadays it is hard to find historic buildings left standing. The former residents were forced out by profitable conditions in the area during the last three decades. Also, city planning should include more commercial centralities, but outside the historic centre. New centralities were built in the city in the second half of the 20th century, but the oldest centrality is still the historic centre; nevertheless, people use it as a commercial core. Also, commercial stores choose this place to achieve the greatest utility.

Some primary schools prefer to locate in the historic centre, too. Zaragoza Street, Madero Avenue, Carranza Street, 5 de Mayo Street and certainly López Mateos Avenue (Figure 2) carry intense traffic, especially during rush hours (at 8-9 a.m., and 14-15 and 18-19 hrs. p.m.), because of schools and commercial places. So the historic centre lost its original sense of being a residential area, especially during the second half of the 20th century. Housing no longer predominates and the question is: What will happen with the city’s urban heritage in the near future?

The city blocks that have more land area taken by parking lots are: 1, 9, 11, 87 and 109 (Figure 1). Most of them are near López Mateos Avenue and Madero Avenue. Also, the city blocks without parking lots are basically away from the principal historic buildings in the city centre. The iconic places in the city of Aguascalientes, like San Marcos Garden (Park), el Encino Garden (Park) and the Main Square still don’t have parking lots. It’s important to mention that city blocks: 1, 38 and 46 have parking spaces under their main buildings, particularly city blocks 38 and 46, with two and three-story car park buildings, respectively.

The data collection inside the ‘limited part of the city’, in terms of industrial land use and services, demonstrates significant changes from the year of 1998 to the year of 2018. In the city block number 65, industries expanded from 6,831.50 m² to 21,397.78 m² (Figure 2). Banks decided to move out to financial areas of the city and now there are only 6 rather than 13 (in the year of 1998). Also, the number of tourism offices and hotels changed from 15 in the year of 1998 to 22 in the year of 2018 due to the San Marcos International Fair, which occupies part of the city centre from April to May every year. Besides, government bureaus decreased in number (21) from the year of 1998 to 15 bureaus in the year of 2018. Finally, the area industrial land and services changed from 32,933.65 m² to 43,368.85 m² from 1998 to 2018 respectively. The city blocks that substantially changed their land use were 1, 4, 10, 12, 17, 19, 20, 28, 29, 32, 47, 55, 65, 85, 90 and 120. Furthermore, land use planning demanded recently the demolition of several buildings –built in the 1970 decade– surrounding the historical Morelos Theatre.      

In Mexico City, on February 15th 2018, the city government decided to promote the use of 101 hybrid taxis, promising they would support the change of 40 (or 50) gasoline taxis to hybrid ones every month, from now on. This is part of the idea in having a circular economic process. This means the cars produce part of their energy when they function, generating lower climate change emissions. About a circular economy, Feng and Yan [6] says: “infrastructure development is indispensable”. This includes the building of water-recycling systems, clean energy systems, and clean mass transit systems.

A sustainable future for the human race will demand system-based thinking that involves, in equal measure, society, environment and economics [7]. So, the use of hybrid vehicles is a good idea to preserve the historic centre, following also a circular economic model. Also, if it is possible to reduce the mobility of cars in the ‘limited part of the city’, the pedestrians will have cleaner historic spaces to enjoy. Also, the reduction of traffic congestion in Aguascalientes might also increase liveability. It means we should give more room to pedestrians in the city.

City planning should include topics of zoning to improve the functions of the city and its morphology. Thus, decisions should be taken about moving out primary schools from the ‘limited part of the city’ or letting them stay there. The fact is that the number of cars going to schools, and then returning, is too high for the historic site. Also, it’s convenient to solve a housing problem, because nowadays some families don’t want to live in the historic centre, as a result of its mobility disadvantages.

It’s convenient to encourage the people who visit the historic centre to use public transportation more often. Also, installing smart traffic lights could reduce traffic jams. As a result, city planners need to apply higher standards in the design of clean transportation in Aguascalientes and its historic centre. This would improve citizens’ quality of life and public health (a condition of the circular economy practice). One solution is improving soft mobility (bicycles) in the designs remodelling some historic parks. There’s a lack of green areas in the ‘limited part of the city’. But if city planning designers start including bikeways in main parks, like nodes, a network could be generated to promote the use of bicycles, reducing the use of cars in the historic centre and also increasing pedestrian spaces.

The use of strategic planning might be a good solution to solve the mobility problem in the ‘limited part of the city’. Rahman says it is not only necessary that planning should respect the prevailing social, environmental, economical and political situation, but the same conditions must need to be congenial and compatible enough to nurture and promote planning as a discipline aimed at lasting social welfare [8]. In this sense, sustainability becomes reasonable and inclusive.

Avoiding streets façadism must be in the agenda of city planning programmes for the historic centre of Aguascalientes, because parking lots are increasing their land area inside the city blocks. If we allow demolition of historic buildings, only façades will be shown to historic centre visitors. George Kubler once mentioned the importance of the shape of time, and it’s still a thinking process that city planning can include in its urban renovation programmes. What’s the reason to keep a historic streetscape, if inside the city blocks there’s no more historic architecture? Hani Hamzah says the concept of time is an important and vital issue in architecture and urban planning. Time means simply the perception of change in one place [9]. And usually, we care much more for what we build in the present than what was built in the past, it’s because few buildings are considered important (culturally speaking) for society. Also, history is the basis of theories about learning from others, to improve professions like architecture and urbanism. We must learn from the past, otherwise we are condemned to repeat the same mistakes. Several contemporary studies compare past and present with significant conclusions. For example, Melo says the trajectory of landscape planning in l'Horta has been evaluated, comparing past and present trends and instruments and assessing them in the light of the literature on landscape planning and peri-urban agriculture [10]. Societies’ legacies should be based on people too, not only on buildings and urbanism. Currently, there’s a lack of integration of societies with their historic centres, and also there’s a lot of research still to do.

Abandoned properties (by homeowners) in the ‘limited part of the city’ must be related to the new, recently-built infrastructure, especially parking lots. Some old citizens still live in the ‘limited part of the city’ but in most cases, their children got married and moved away from their parents. A lot of houses in old remarkable places are big, but with few people living in them now. This is also a historic preservation problem. Also the spatial changes very often become an inconvenience for preservation projects. But the study of history can become relevant in such situations. Sánchez, Luengas & Crespo refer to original spatial distribution when they speak about the Lighthouse of Santa Clara Island: It has been possible to detect the original distribution of the lighthouse keeper. The living quarters and the working place necessarily cohabited: the spatial distribution responded to a programme that was consciously executed. They formed part of another intangible symbol of the working culture of the construction era [11]. Moreover, the elderly homeowners’ resources are too limited to maintain their houses, with so many rooms. Old people only occupy the first floor of some multi-story houses. Stairs become a problem, as people get older.

In the year 1791, Felix Calleja counted the people living in the small village of Aguascalientes and found there were almost 10,000 inhabitants. In the year of 1837, the Governor of Aguascalientes ordered a census of Aguascalientes and detected 19,600 inhabitants, but in the year of 2001 (in the ‘limited part of the city’) 5,553 inhabitants were counted. It’s convenient to say the land area in the study area (Figure 1) contains the old small village of Aguascalientes, so it’s correct to say that there’s decay in the population of 72%. No wonder we find a lot of abandoned houses in such a land area. But the most important fact for this paper isn’t only to analyse the quantity of abandoned buildings, but the amount of parking lots built in the last decades, so now in this discussion we can say that urban mobility is related to the loss of historic heritage within the selected land area used for the writing of this paper. It’s an everyday situation to observe car drivers trying to find spots to park on the streets, but also city regulations more often limit the parking on the streets. The intention of the business shops is to promote the use of parking lots. Instead, we can observe the way they solve this situation in important historic cities in Europe, for example. They promote new driving habits and increase pedestrian spaces in the historic sites, and also promote the use of bikeways. In several countries, and not only in Europe, researchers give more importance to open spaces, for example Zalloom and Tarrad proposed new strategies considering the role of public spaces in linking the historical buildings to the World Heritage List.

After reviewing topics about urban growth and smart cities, and trying to relate the concept to specific urban cases, it was found that urban growth basically leans now –in Mexico– on economics. Nevertheless, it’s not obligatory to decrease the interaction between mobility of cars and commercial shops in the historic centre of Aguascalientes, to achieve a circular economy model immediately. An important characteristic of circular economy is social development. Commercial shops, restaurants and offices that have settled in the ‘limited part of the city’ constantly offer jobs to people. Also, in recent years, tourism has been producing significant incomes for City Hall and for businesses installed in the historic site. The real problem is the lack of legislations to stop demolition of historic buildings. Also the problem of parking lots can be solved proficiently by designing specific places close to the city centre of Aguascalientes –authorized by historic preservation agencies. In addition, there is still more to do in terms of mobility technology. This means new centralizations of urban economies should emerge away from the historic centre, in the search for new relationships with city structures, in order to stop the loss of heritage architecture. Thus, innovating solutions to use current resources in a smarter way. Also, the designs of bikeways in the city pretend the improvement of an ethical urban growth, following sustainability principles: social, economics and the environment.

Even though the phenomenon of mobility in urban heritage sites is fragmented and has multi-causal difficulties, it’s obvious the parking lots mentioned in this paper are severely altering the rest of the historic buildings inside the ‘limited part of the city’, becoming collateral effects, in terms of urban sciences. But the study of history can become a useful tool to identify architecture to be preserved. Majestic buildings are easier to identify than small historic houses. Thus, governments pay more attention in the preservation of touristic buildings rather than small places, and economy becomes a factor in the way we contemplate architecture retrospectively.

It was demonstrated in this paper that we can learn from the past to set new scenarios for historic preservation. The methodology proposed in this paper showed facts to help determine which historic buildings are in risk and the urban transformations that modify cultural sustainability. It’s a fact that cultural sustainability is required to accomplish an efficient circular economy in a city.

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Figure 3. The method and future scenarios. AAC stands for Alejandro Acosta Collazo. Drawing made by the author, June 2020

A mind map (Figure 3), expressly made for this paper, represents the concepts used as a methodology to identify urban transformations related to historic preservation. This Methodology –named: AAC Land Use Analysis Method & Historic Preservation starts with the study of a historic map. In this case a drawing made by Isidoro Epstein in 1855 was selected because it was the most accurate map from the 19^th century of the city of Aguascalientes. Such map includes the most important buildings and specifies the residential land use. Afterwards, the historical map was overlaid onto a more recent drawing: a cadastral map made in 1998. Notice the scale of the two maps should be the same. Then ‘a limited part of the city’ was obtained (Figure 1). In this case, land use data from 1998 to 2018 was available, so it became useful to apply a statistical contrast, analysing historic information with land use data. So, only significant data were used in Tables 1 and 2, in order to demonstrate urban transformation conclusions. Also, it’s convenient to remark there’s an emphasis on parking lots, commercial and residential land use transformation.

The method can be useful for city planning since it can demonstrate which historic buildings are in risk due to mobility and the commercial shops inside a core of a historic place. It’s a fact there should be historic information about the buildings in order to create a catalogue. Then, for cultural sustainability, economic factors should be explored to determine how they impact ‘a limited part of the city’, and this includes the mobility that comes with commercial shops.

But the disaster due to loss of historic buildings can be avoided with a correct city planning. With the help of the AAC Land Use Analysis Method & Historic Preservation the variables that affect urban transformations can be recognized. The method can be as accurate as the city planner can decide. If it’s possible use a Geographic Information System to display significant data related to land use in critical areas in the city. In this case a historical area was mentioned, but ‘a limited part of the city’ can be defined to study different types of urban problems in a city. Also, there are several historical neighborhoods in a lot of cities that require precise analysis in order to be preserved.

Nowadays cultural sustainability should be in the agenda of the city administrators because it’s related to identity of people, and one good solution is the use of electric and hybrid cars in historic centres. It’s time to recognize they are a good solution to promote a circular economy model. Historic buildings deterioration could be reduced by the implementation of a more friendly mobility system. For example, important car companies established in Aguascalientes could explore and support new technologies to improve mobility choices and ecologically friendly. In Spain, for example, a Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan (SUMP) has been developed at La Manga in order to encourage sustainable mobility through a rational use of the private car and to ensure and make easier the intermodality among public transport, bicycles and pedestrian areas. Urbanism and architecture schools can also help to develop new mobility possibilities. In addition, restoration schools can also help to design the way clean mass transit systems should access the city centre and share parking lots correctly with historic buildings. So the final solution becomes a multidisciplinary option. To give an instance, Hmood and DiŞli propose the inclusion of several experts with different skills to manage the increasing range of historic places and landscapes to improve a sustainable development.

Also, pedestrians need places to enjoy the city centre on a secure way with fewer vehicles. Electric and hybrid cars also reduce engine noises and pollution. Since these types of vehicles make part of their energy when they function, less organic chemicals are used.