Humedal Entre Cerros: Environment Ministry excludes the Villa Dulce 2000 property

The Ministry of the Environment excluded from the Entre Cerros urban wetland, in Viña del Mar, the area overlapping with the property of the “Villa Dulce 2000” Housing Committee, where part of the works for the Altos del Mar housing project will be constructed. The measure is contained in exempt resolution No. 5,659, dated October 7, 2026, published in the Official Gazette No. 44,572 on Tuesday, October 13, 2026, section I, pages 1 to 10 (CVE 2884693), and complies with the ruling of the Second Environmental Court in case Rol R-459-2024.

The act is issued within the framework of Law No. 21,202, which protects urban wetlands, and its regulation, Supreme Decree No. 15 of 2020, from the Ministry of the Environment. The Entre Cerros wetland had been recognized by exempt resolution No. 364, dated April 5, 2024, with an approximate area of 0.63 hectares, following the request of the Illustrious Municipality of Viña del Mar (mayoral letter No. 871, dated July 6, 2023) and the declaration of admissibility by the Seremi of the Environment of the Valparaíso Region (exempt resolution No. 26, dated July 17, 2023).

The “Villa Dulce 2000” Housing Committee filed a claim before the Second Environmental Court on May 30, 2024, which was admitted for processing on June 10, 2024. On July 3, 2025, the court issued a final judgment in a split decision: it partially upheld the claim, nullified the declaration in the area overlapping with the committee’s property, and ordered the procedure to be rolled back to a new Technical Analysis Sheet that would weigh the background of the Altos del Mar project.

The new delimitation of the wetland

According to the resolution, the Entre Cerros wetland corresponds to a continental urban wetland, of rivers and streams, temporary riparian, cyclic or seasonal, with a total approximate area of 0.62 hectares, located entirely within the urban limit of Viña del Mar, Valparaíso Region, and the Valparaíso Metropolitan Regulatory Plan (Premval).

• Excluded area: the overlap with the committee’s property, where works for the Altos del Mar project are located.
• Excluded surface: approximately 110.5 m², equivalent to 1.7% of the delimited area of the wetland (6,342 m²).
• Surface maintained: the remainder of the surface originally recognized in 2024.
• Cartography: 12 reference vertices in UTM coordinates, WGS84 datum, zone 19 south.

The ministry maintained that the exclusion does not contravene the minimum sustainability criteria of Article 3 of the regulation, because the area is part of the physical drainage system of the wetland and maintains continuity with the downstream channel, and because the hydraulic solutions of the project allow it to be foreseen that the waters will continue to be conducted toward the Quebrada Principal.

The Housing Project and the Field Campaign

The Altos del Mar project consists of a set of 160 public interest homes promoted by the committee, linked to the Housing Choice Solidarity Fund and the Housing Emergency Plan. Its background information was provided by the Regional Ministerial Secretariat (Seremi) of Housing and Urbanism of the Valparaíso Region through official letter No. 473, dated March 1, 2024.

The Regional Ministerial Secretariat (Seremi) of the Environment of the Valparaíso Region, via exempt resolution No. 3,173 dated June 15, 2026, scheduled the field campaign for June 19, 2026, in which professionals from the ministry and representatives from the Seremi Minvu, the Housing and Urbanization Service, the Municipality of Viña del Mar, and the committee participated. That campaign once again identified the drainage pattern across six consecutive sites.

Rejection of the Appeal and Deadlines

The committee filed a motion for reconsideration on June 16, 2026, against exempt resolution No. 3,053 of 2026, which had partially rolled back the procedure. The ministry rejected it: it maintained that the partial annulment was ordered by the court ruling and not by that act, and that the area rendered void comprises only the area overlapping with the Altos del Mar project.

• The resolution may be appealed before the competent Environmental Court within 30 days from its publication in the Official Gazette.
• The “Villa Dulce 2000” Housing Committee and the Illustrious Municipality of Viña del Mar must be notified.
• The Second Environmental Court must be formally notified to communicate the resolution.
• Signed by the Minister of the Environment, Francisca Ignacia Toledo Echegaray.

The decision closes, for now, a two-year conflict between the protection of a seasonal ravine wetland and the access to housing for 160 families, and establishes a criterion on how to weigh social and economic dimensions in the delimitation of urban wetlands. The split ruling and the rejected appeal anticipate, however, that the case may return to the environmental court.

Source: Official Gazette of the Republic of Chile, No. 44,572, Tuesday, October 13, 2026, Section I, pp. 1-10 (official reference: CVE 2884693).