The law that separates Monteverde from Puntarenas and makes it an independent municipality is ready. Once it is published in La Gaceta, the town will become the 83rd canton of Costa Rica.
The project had been finalized in early August and on Wednesday, during a visit to the area, President Carlos Alvarado signed the law. A complete process will now begin so that the municipality establishes itself as such and can develop its full autonomy.
The 7 adjustments for the new canton
Monteverde already functioned as a quartermaster, which allowed it a certain degree of separation from the Municipality of Puntarenas that governed it. Thus, there is already infrastructure and officials in the area that will make the transition much cheaper.
However, there is a list of requirements to complete in the next two years:
– National Registry: the new municipality must put in its name all the assets previously registered by the Municipal Council.
– First municipal elections: the TSE will carry out the preparatory acts and logistical adjustments necessary to organize elections in the new canton of Monteverde. These will be made in the municipal elections of 2024.
– Transfer of resources. The Municipality of Puntarenas is authorized to transfer the resources that belong to the Municipal Council of the Monteverde District to the new
Municipality of Monteverde
– Official map. The National Geographic Institute is empowered to interpret and represent the limits indicated in article 2 in the Official Cartography, within the three months following the effective date of this law, and to declare the map generated from this limit official.
– Territorial Administrative Division. Once the councilors, trustees, councilors, the mayor’s office and the vice mayors have been elected, the current councilors, mayor and vice-mayor of the Monteverde District Municipal Council are authorized to make decisions to continue managing the interests and local services of the Monteverde canton .
– Patents: the income from patents will be governed by the Patents Law of the Canton of Puntarenas, until within a maximum period of eighteen months after the new Municipality of Monteverde has been installed, it has its own law already published. Monteverde already has a District Council, which will serve as the basis for the new Municipality
More Monteverde data
– Monteverde will have as its head the district of Santa Elena, where most services and institutions currently operate.
– The new canton will border four cantons: to the east with San Ramón, to the west with Abangares, to the north with Tilarán and to the south with Puntarenas.
– The community began its history between 1915 and 1920 with the arrival of 8 families who sought new cultivation spaces. In 1951 they were joined by a group of families from Alabama, United States, who professed the Quaker religion. They installed dairy and agricultural production in the place, which later became a tourist epicenter.
– The new canton is estimated to have a population of 6,000.
