Playa del Carmen Launches Public Consultation for New Urban Development Plan

Playa del Carmen, Quintana Roo — The municipal government led by Mayor Estefanía Mercado has launched a public consultation process for Playa del Carmen’s new Territorial Planning and Urban Development Program, a framework that will guide the city’s growth for the next three decades.

“We have begun the public hearings to build together the new PDU, the roadmap that will set the course for Playa del Carmen for the next 30 years,” Mercado said. “This is not just any document; it is the planning of the future we want: an orderly city, with safe mobility, more public spaces, responsible growth, and shared prosperity.”

She called on residents to help construct the city’s future with vision, responsibility, and public participation.

During the first of eight planned consultations, held at the Playa del Carmen Sports Complex dome, Manuel Alfonso Barrero Gutiérrez, president of the Riviera Maya College of Architects, said the program will provide clarity for citizens on what can be developed on their properties under clear, transparent, and technically sound rules, ensuring legal certainty and orderly development.

Barrero noted that the executive diagnostic project involved engineers, architects, business chambers, civil associations, and the general public over more than eight months, resulting in a solid document socialized through monthly open and sector-specific workshops—an approach he said was not used in previous processes.

Following the council’s approval of the draft plan in January, the municipal government opened the formal public consultation period from February 9 to March 3. During this time, officials will hold eight public hearings and open six locations for document review. The city will address and respond to all public contributions during March.

The Territorial Planning and Urban Development Program is a mandatory regulatory instrument that establishes a new urban structure model aligned with the General Law on Human Settlements.