Municipality of San José must address informal settlement and resolve garbage problem in Los CipresesMunicipalidad de San José debe corregir asentamiento informal y resolver problema de basura en Los Cipreses

*220283280007CO* Case File: 22-028328-0007-CO Res. No. 2023002457 CONSTITUTIONAL CHAMBER OF THE SUPREME COURT OF JUSTICE. San José, at nine hours twenty minutes on the third of February, two thousand twenty-three.

Amparo action processed in case file number 22-028328-0007-CO, filed by Nombre01, identity card CED01, against the MUNICIPALITY OF SAN JOSÉ.

Considering:

1.- By a written submission filed with the Secretariat of this Chamber on December 13, 2022, the petitioner filed an amparo action against the Municipality of San José. He states that he lives at Dirección01, calle 28, avenida 15, 100 meters north of the main entrance of the Liceo de San José. He states that neighbors deposit garbage in front of his home, causing a high degree of contamination and foul odors. He indicates that for 7 years he has spoken with officials of the Municipality of San José, without them resolving the indicated problem. He details that on April 30, 2021, he sent an email to the address ...01, in which he explained: "The neighbors of the Los cipreses settlement (formerly Precario Nombre02), which are about 80 houses, cause us several problems that I detail below: 1. The neighbors do not respect the rule of taking out their garbage on the indicated day, but rather on the night before the collection day they deposit their garbage bags (and in some cases even open), causing unbearable odors as well as the spread of garbage in the surroundings given that scavengers show up to ransack the garbage. 2. If the collection day coincides with a holiday, the problem worsens even more and not to mention when the collectors go on strike. 3. Lately the people they have tasked with cleaning are not doing so (coupled with the fact that the collectors do not bring their brooms to sweep), causing it to disperse along the street and the contamination left by the waste to be altered by the sun, making the foul odors accelerate, as well as the visits of flies to our house (...) This is a problem that we have been asking the Municipality of San José to correct for years" and on October 26, 2021, he sent an email to the addresses ...02, ...03, ...04, ...05, and ...06, in which he pointed out: "More than 6 years ago I explained to you the problem of garbage with the neighbors of Los Cipreses at Dirección01, between Dirección02, 100 meters north of the main entrance of the Liceo de San José, since they deposit it on one side and in front of my house. The regrettable thing about this is that different departments of the Municipality are aware of the problem and to date have not resolved anything (...)", among other emails dating back to 2015. He states that the aforementioned situation puts his health and that of his family at risk. He requests the intervention of the Chamber.

2.- By resolution at 17:09 hours on December 16, 2022, the petitioner was admonished to indicate whether he had filed a formal and written request before the respondent municipal corporation regarding the problem claimed in the filing brief.

3.- By submissions filed on December 27, 2022, the petitioner complied with the admonishment.

4.- The admonishment having been complied with, and by resolution at 08:53 hours on January 13, 2022, this amparo proceeding was admitted and a report was requested from the Mayor, the Service Provision Manager, and the Head of the Department of Environmental Services, all of the Municipality of San José.

5.- Johnny Araya Monge, Marco Vinicio Corrales Xatruch, and Emperatriz Ordeñana Ayerdis, respectively, Mayor, Service Provision Manager, and Head of the Department of Environmental Services, all of the Municipality of San José, render a report under oath. They state that they adhere to what was said by the head of the Department of Environmental Services of that municipal corporation, who, by official communication DSA-022-2023 of January 18, 2023, indicated: "(...) A visit to the site was made today to ascertain the situation described, and it is confirmed that the neighbors of Los Cipreses at Dirección01 located between Dirección02 indeed deposit their waste there; therefore, the following actions are taken: 1. In point one it is indicated that the neighbors do not respect the collection schedule; flyers will be distributed in the community informing of the collection service schedule, which is only Tuesdays and Fridays starting at 6 am. 2. Regarding holidays that fall on Tuesday or Friday, the population will be notified if the service will be provided, which generally are: January 1, Holy Thursday and Good Friday, and December 25. 3. Regarding the officials not sweeping up the loose waste, they will be given the necessary tools to carry out said cleaning; for this, a visit will be made with the area supervisor to specifically address the need. 4. Regarding the sweeping service, it is reported that in the area, by the Urban Cleaning section, the service is provided 3 days a week: Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. Additionally, in 2022, a non-traditional waste collection campaign was carried out in Barrio México, collecting 7 tons of waste. 5. Regarding the emails that Mr. Nombre01 indicates, it is reported that they were always attended to, and visits to the site were made to resolve the problem that has arisen with the waste; the service has been provided on Tuesdays and Fridays. The accumulation problem is due to the lack of culture and education of some neighbors, also taking into account that it is an informal settlement that has been establishing itself over time without planning in terms of formal access roads, which hinders the entry of cleaning and collection equipment. On those occasions, visits and conversations were held with the neighbors to establish another waste disposal center without apparent results. Faced with this problem, a meeting will be coordinated during the next week with the Neighborhood Committee to study the possibility of establishing another collection point, where waste is placed on the days established by the administration, or to assess whether an 8-yard truck can enter, since the electrical grid cables are very low and could break due to the height of the truck; all of this will be assessed on the day of the meeting with the neighbors (...)". Furthermore, they point out that the email address ...07 is the appropriate means for filing petitions such as those filed by the petitioner. However, they consider that the fundamental rights of the petitioner have not been violated. They request that the action be dismissed.

6.- The legal requirements have been observed in the proceedings followed.

Drafted by Magistrate Salazar Alvarado; and,

Considering:

I.- OBJECT OF THE ACTION. The petitioner claims that the authorities of the Municipality of San José have not performed the corresponding acts to address and resolve a contamination problem caused by the poor handling of garbage.

II.- PROVEN FACTS. The following facts are deemed duly proven as relevant to the decision of this matter:

1. On July 28 and August 18, 2015, the petitioner filed two complaints before the Municipality of San José regarding the problem of poor management of garbage collection and treatment in the community of Los Cipreses in Barrio México (evidence provided).

2. On October 12, 2016, by email addressed to the account ...08, the petitioner reiterated before the Municipality of San José the complaints about the poor management of garbage (evidence provided).

3. On August 11, 2017, and November 8, 2017, the petitioner filed new complaints before the Municipality of San José for the same issue (evidence provided).

4. In the year 2018, on September 25 and October 12, by emails sent to the addresses ...02, ...09, ...10, and ...11, the petitioner reiterated before the Municipality of San José the complaints about the poor management of garbage in the community of Los Cipreses in Barrio México (evidence provided).

5. By email dated April 30, 2021, sent to the account ...12, the petitioner reiterated before the Municipality of San José the aforementioned complaints (evidence provided).

6. By email dated October 26, 2021, addressed to the accounts ...13, ...14, ...15, ...16, and ...17, the petitioner reiterated before the Municipality of San José the complaints about problems with garbage in the community of Los Cipreses in Barrio México (evidence provided).

7. As of the date of filing this action, that is, December 13, 2022, the problem denounced by the petitioner persists (report and evidence provided).

8. The admission resolution issued in this proceeding was notified to the respondent authorities on January 16, 2023 (notification records).

9. On the occasion of the notification of the admission resolution issued in this proceeding, the Department of Environmental Services, in coordination with the Collection Services Section, carried out an inspection and determined: a) the neighbors do not respect the garbage collection schedule, therefore flyers will be distributed to inform about waste collection, both on business days and on holidays; b) to provide cleaning implements to the municipal employees responsible for street cleaning who are assigned to the petitioner's locality; c) it was decided to carry out a non-traditional waste collection campaign and that the street cleaning service must be performed three days a week, namely, Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday; d) the problems with garbage treatment in the locality where the petitioner lives are largely due to the problems caused by an informal settlement that has been established informally and without planning (report and evidence provided).

III.- ON THE RIGHT TO A HEALTHY AND BALANCED ENVIRONMENT. Article 50 of the Political Constitution establishes that all persons have the right to a healthy and ecologically balanced environment, since the protection of this right is one of the factors that guarantee the exercise of the right to health contained in Constitutional Article 21. Likewise, Article 89 of the Magna Carta enshrines the State's duty to maintain and protect natural riches. In this regard, this Court, by means of Judgment No. 3705-93 at 15:00 hours on July 30, 1993, indicated that:

"(…) Environmental quality is a parameter of that quality of life; other no less important parameters are health, food, work, housing, education, etc., but more important than that is understanding that although man has the right to use the environment for his own development, he also has the duty to protect and preserve it for the use of present and future generations, which is not so novel, because it is nothing more than the translation to this matter of the principle of 'injury', already consolidated in common law, by virtue of which the legitimate exercise of a right has two essential limits: On one hand, the equal rights of others and, on the other, the rational exercise and useful enjoyment of the right itself (…)" Thus, in addition to the right to a healthy environment and the duty of each person to make rational use of natural resources, there is the State's duty to ensure their protection and conservation, as well as the correlative power to impose the corresponding sanctions for non-compliance with those duties. This is how Article 50 of the Fundamental Charter establishes the following:

"(…) Every person has the right to a healthy and ecologically balanced environment. Therefore, they are entitled to denounce acts that infringe upon that right and to claim reparation for the damage caused.

The State shall guarantee, defend, and preserve that right. The law shall determine the corresponding responsibilities and sanctions (…)".

From the foregoing, it is clearly inferred that the State, through the bodies designated for that purpose, is responsible for guaranteeing all persons a healthy and balanced environment, through the mechanisms that the law makes available to it, in order to avoid irreversible damage to the environment and public health. In addition to this, it must promote the necessary measures so that each person enjoys their right to health (see, among others, Judgment No. 2009-006462 at 12:26 hrs. on April 24, 2009, and Judgment No. 2018-001089 at 09:30 hrs. on January 26, 2018).

IV.- ON THE SPECIFIC CASE. In the specific case, the petitioner alleges an infringement of the right to a healthy and ecologically balanced environment on the occasion of problems due to the lack of collection and poor treatment of garbage in the community of Los Cipreses in Barrio México. In this regard, the petitioner has been denouncing this problem since 2015, when on July 28 of that year, he filed the first complaint before the Municipality of San José. Subsequently, he reiterated the complaints on various dates, such as October 12, 2016, September 25 and October 12, 2018, April 30, 2021, and October 26, 2021. However, as of the date the petitioner came to this court through this summary proceeding, that is, December 13, 2022, the denounced problem persists. Even though, on the occasion of the notification of the admission resolution issued in this amparo proceeding, the municipal authorities carried out an inspection and determined some actions to follow, the truth is that this is not enough to provide a comprehensive solution to the denounced problem.

Furthermore, it is noted that on the occasion of this amparo proceeding, the Department of Environmental Services, in coordination with the Collection Services Section, both divisions of the Municipality of San José, carried out an inspection and determined: a) the neighbors do not respect the garbage collection schedule, therefore flyers will be distributed to inform about waste collection, both on business days and on holidays; b) to provide cleaning implements to the municipal employees responsible for street cleaning who are assigned to the petitioner's locality; c) it was decided to carry out a non-traditional waste collection campaign and that the street cleaning service must be performed three days a week, namely, Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday; d) the problems with garbage treatment in the locality where the petitioner lives are largely due to the problems caused by an informal settlement that has been established informally and without planning.

From the foregoing, it is extracted that even though the respondent municipality has performed some acts to attempt to remedy the denounced problem, the truth is that these have not been sufficient, as the main cause of the garbage problems in Los Cipreses in Barrio México has not been addressed, namely, the establishment and development of an informal settlement. This has been known to the respondent municipal corporation, and in its report, the instances thereof that are respondents here assert that the main problem is the growth of that informal settlement. However, the competent municipal authorities have not performed the acts and inter-institutional coordinations to regularize or bring into legal compliance the situation of the cited settlement, that is, so that said settlement conforms to legal regulations, whether municipal or of any other matters, so that in addition to remedying the garbage problem, solutions are sought, even to other risk situations, such as fire hazards, security, among others, which would evidently also be of interest to the petitioner. Thus, the lack of attention to the problem caused by the settlement that has been established informally in the vicinity of the place where the petitioner lives violates his fundamental rights.

It must be borne in mind that Article 169 of the Political Constitution provides that "The administration of local interests and services in each canton shall be in charge of the Municipal Government (...)". This rule has been developed by the ordinary legislator; accordingly, Article 3 of the Municipal Code, Law No. 7794 of April 30, 1998, provides that: "The government and administration of cantonal interests and services shall be in charge of the municipal government". In this regard, this Constitutional Chamber - e.g., Judgment No. 1999-5445 at 14:30 hours on July 14, 1999, and Judgment No. 2020-010630 at 09:15 hours on June 12, 2020 - has stated the following:

"(…) 'VI.- OF THE POWERS OF MUNICIPALITIES BY REASON OF SUBJECT MATTER (CONCEPT OF "THE LOCAL"). By express constitutional provision -Article 169-, there is an assignment of functions or powers in favor of local governments by reason of subject matter to "the local", that is, "the administration of the services and interests" of the locality to which it is circumscribed, for which it is granted autonomy. Thus, its powers are generic, insofar as there is no detailed enumeration of its own tasks, but a simple enunciation of the scope of its competence; but not therefore undeterminable, to which this Court referred in judgment number 6469-97, at sixteen hours twenty minutes on October eight, nineteen ninety-seven, in the following terms:

" (...) the local has such a connotation that defining its scope by the legislator or the judge must lead to maintaining the integrity of local interests and services, in such a way that the legislator could not even enact normative legislation that tends to dismember the Municipality (territorial element), without following the procedures previously established in the Political Constitution; nor could it enact legislation that places its inhabitants (population) in clear conditions of inferiority compared to the rest of the country; nor that which affects the very essence of the local (government), so as to turn the Corporation into a simple empty container of which only the name subsists, but deactivating the entire regime as it was conceived by the National Constituent Assembly. On another note, there will be tasks that by their nature are municipal -local- and cannot be withdrawn from that sphere of competence to turn them into national services or interests, because doing so would imply dismantling the Municipality, or better yet, emptying it of constitutional content, and therefore, it is not possible to dictate in advance the insurmountable limits of the local, but rather, to unravel what corresponds or not to the communal government must be extracted from the examination made in each specific case (...)". From the foregoing, the fact that, by express will of our Fundamental Charter, a specific competence is assigned to local governments stands out, an attribution that is also exclusive to them; that is, it is an original competence of the municipality, and only through a law of nationalization or regionalization can it be displaced, totally or partially."

From what is stated in the cited jurisprudential excerpt, it is inferred that municipalities must ensure the well-being of the residents of their respective jurisdiction. By virtue of this, being aware of the problems caused by the operation of an irregular settlement, impacting the problem denounced by the petitioner, the Municipality of San José should have performed the corresponding acts to prevent the negative impact on the sphere of rights of the petitioner and other neighbors of Los Cipreses in Barrio México due to the establishment and irregular development of the aforementioned settlement. The municipal actions, moreover, should have included the corresponding coordination with any other institutions with competence in the matter. Indeed, the Chamber has already developed the municipal obligation to coordinate with other state institutions in order to attend to the "interests" and fully provide the "local services". In the cited Judgment No. 1999-005445 at 14:30 hours on July 14, 1999, a criterion reiterated in Judgment No. 2020-010630 at 09:15 hours on June 12, 2020, the Chamber stated:

"(...) they refer to the obligation of coordination that must exist between local governments, decentralized institutions, and the Executive Branch, to carry out the functions that have been entrusted to them, which must be analyzed based on the very nature of municipal autonomy. It is by virtue of the provisions of constitutional Article 170 that municipalities (local corporate entities) enjoy functional, administrative, and financial autonomy in the administration of local interests and services (Article 169 of the Political Constitution) (...) A conflict cannot, therefore, be created by antagonism or protagonism between the matter that constitutes the general purpose of 'local interests and services' and the 'national' or 'state' public interests and services, intrinsically distinct from one another, but which in reality are destined to coexist (....) Having defined the material competence of the municipality within a determined territorial jurisdiction, it is clear that there will be tasks that by their nature are exclusively municipal, alongside others that may be considered national or state; therefore, it is essential to define the form of co-participation of attributions that is inevitable, since the public capacity of the municipalities is local, and that of the State and other entities is national; hence, the municipal territory is simultaneously state and institutional, to the extent that circumstances require it. That is to say, municipalities can share their competences with the Public Administration in general, a relationship that must develop under the terms defined in the law (Article 5 of the former Municipal Code, Article 7 of the new Code), which establishes the obligation of 'coordination' between municipalities and public institutions that concur in the performance of their competences, to avoid duplication of efforts and contradictions, especially because only voluntary coordination is compatible with municipal autonomy as it is its expression. In other terms, the municipality is called upon to enter into cooperative relations with other public entities, and vice versa, given the concurrent or coincident nature -in many cases- of interests around a specific matter. In doctrine, coordination is defined based on the existence of several independent centers of action, each with its own tasks and decision-making powers, and eventually discrepant; despite this, there must be a community of purposes by subject matter, but by concurrence, insofar as the object receiving the final results of the activity and the acts of each is common." So, coordination is the ordering of the relations between these diverse independent activities, which takes charge of that concurrence in a single object or entity, to make it useful for a global public plan, without suppressing the reciprocal independence of the agent subjects. Since there is no hierarchical relationship between decentralized institutions, nor between the State itself and the municipalities, it is not possible to impose certain conducts on them, hence the indispensable inter-institutional 'concert', in a strict sense, arises, insofar as the autonomous and independent centers of action agree on that preventive and global scheme, in which each one fulfills a role with a view to a mission entrusted to the others."

Under such a state of affairs and in accordance with the provisions of Article 50 of the Political Constitution, municipalities must exert themselves in protecting the environment.

Having set forth the foregoing considerations, what has been said regarding the obligation of the Municipality of San José is reiterated to execute and coordinate with competent institutions everything necessary to solve the problem denounced by the petitioner, which has not been definitively resolved, largely because the cited municipal corporation has not carried out actions or inter-institutional coordination to regularize the operation of a settlement established and developed informally. Consequently, this amparo action is granted, in accordance with the provisions set forth in the operative part of this judgment.

V.- NOTE BY MAGISTRATE SALAZAR ALVARADO. In environmental matters, it is also the undersigned's criterion that if there has already been intervention by the Public Administration, I consider that its knowledge and resolution corresponds to the contentious-administrative jurisdiction. However, I do proceed to hear the merits of the matter when other rights of the persons affected by the source of contamination are at stake, among them, health, quality of life, and the right to enjoy a healthy environment free from contamination (Article 50 of the Political Constitution), as is the case here, in which the petitioner accuses having denounced contamination problems due to the lack of collection and poor treatment of garbage in the community where he lives, without the Municipality of San José having provided a solution to said problem, in violation of the right to enjoy a healthy and ecologically balanced environment and a dignified level of quality of life.

VI.- Partial dissenting vote regarding the operative part of this judgment by Magistrate Garro Vargas. While I agree with the majority of the Chamber that the action should be granted, I differ on where to place the execution phase of the matter, due to the nonexistence of adequate mechanisms provided by the regulations governing this constitutional jurisdiction to follow up on a judgment that involves highly complex technical aspects, such as is in this case correcting the development of the settlement that was established informally near Los Cipreses in Barrio México and thereby providing a definitive solution to the garbage problem afflicting that community, which affects the fundamental rights of the petitioner. Instead, what is provided by the Contentious-Administrative Procedure Code regarding execution (Article 155 and following) has clear advantages, such as the possibility of requesting timelines, imposing fines, establishing responsibilities, overseeing compliance stages, etc. Therefore, in accordance with the provisions of Article 56 of the Law of Constitutional Jurisdiction, I believe that the execution phase must be carried out before the Execution Area of the Contentious-Administrative and Civil Treasury Court, under the rules for executing judgments of said Code.

VII.- DOCUMENTATION PROVIDED TO THE CASE FILE. The parties are admonished that if they have provided any paper documents, as well as objects or evidence contained in any additional electronic, computer, magnetic, optical, telematic device or one produced by new technologies, these must be retrieved from the office within a maximum period of 30 business days counted from the notification of this judgment. Otherwise, all material not retrieved within this period will be destroyed, as stipulated in the "Regulation on Electronic Case Files before the Judicial Branch," approved by the Full Court in session No. 27-11 of August 22, 2011, Article XXVI, and published in the Judicial Bulletin number 19 of January 26, 2012, as well as in the agreement approved by the Superior Council of the Judicial Branch, in session No. 43-12 held on May 3, 2012, Article LXXXI.

Therefore:

The action is granted. Johnny Araya Monge, Marco Vinicio Corrales Xatruch, and Emperatriz Ordeñana Ayerdis, respectively, Mayor, Service Provision Manager, and Head of the Department of Environmental Services, all of the Municipality of San José, or whomever holds such positions, are ordered to execute the corresponding acts and coordinations so that, within twelve months following the notification of this judgment, the development of the settlement that was established informally in the vicinity of Los Cipreses in Barrio México is corrected, and thereby a definitive solution is provided to the garbage problem afflicting that community, which affects the fundamental rights of the petitioner.

The foregoing, under warning that they could incur in the crime defined in article 71 of the Ley de la Jurisdicción Constitucional, which provides that imprisonment of three months to two years, or a fine of twenty to sixty days, shall be imposed on anyone who receives an order that must be complied with or enforced, issued in an amparo proceeding, and does not comply with it or does not enforce it, provided the crime is not more severely punished. The Municipalidad de San José is ordered to pay the costs, damages, and losses caused by the acts that serve as the basis for this declaration, which shall be liquidated in the execution of sentence phase of the administrative litigation proceeding. Magistrate Salazar Alvarado records a note. Magistrate Garro Vargas dissents regarding the execution of this judgment and, in accordance with article 56 of the Ley de la Jurisdicción Constitucional, orders that it must be carried out before the Enforcement Area of the Tribunal Contencioso Administrativo y Civil de Hacienda, under the enforcement rules established in articles 155 and following of the Código Procesal Contencioso Administrativo. Likewise, she orders that a copy of the judgment be sent to the Enforcement Area so that the enforcement proceedings for this ruling may be initiated. Notify.- Fernando Castillo V.

Fernando Cruz C.

Paul Rueda L.

Luis Fdo. Salazar A.

Jorge Araya G.

Anamari Garro V.

Aracelly Pacheco S.

Documento Firmado Digitalmente -- Código verificador -- \*LDUEZ4LVQ0061\* 1 6. By email dated October 26, 2021, sent to the accounts ...13, ...14, ...15, ...16, and ...17, the appellant reiterated before the Municipalidad de San José the complaints regarding problems with garbage in the Los Cipreses community in Barrio México (evidence provided).

7. As of the date this appeal was filed, that is, December 13, 2022, the problem reported by the appellant persists (report and evidence provided).

8. The procedural order issued in this process was notified to the respondent authorities on January 16, 2023 (notifications).

9. On the occasion of the notification of the procedural order issued in this process, the Department of Environmental Services (Departamento de Servicios Ambientales), in coordination with the Collection Services Section (Sección de Servicios de Recolección), conducted an inspection and determined: a) the neighbors do not respect the garbage collection schedule, so flyers will be distributed to inform them about waste collection, both on business days and holidays; b) to provide cleaning implements to the municipal employees responsible for street cleaning who are assigned to the appellant's locality; c) it was decided to carry out a non-traditional waste collection campaign and that the street cleaning service must be performed three days a week, namely, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays; d) the problems with garbage treatment in the locality where the appellant lives are largely due to the problems caused by an informal settlement (asentamiento informal) that has been established informally and without planning (report and evidence provided).

**III.- ON THE RIGHT TO A HEALTHY AND BALANCED ENVIRONMENT.** Article 50 of the Political Constitution establishes that every person has the right to a healthy and ecologically balanced environment, as the protection of this right is one of the factors guaranteeing the exercise of the right to health contained in Article 21 of the Constitution. Likewise, Article 89 of the Magna Carta enshrines the State's duty to maintain and protect natural resources. In that sense, this Tribunal, through Judgment No. 3705-93 of 3:00 p.m. on July 30, 1993, indicated that:

*"(…) Environmental quality is a parameter of that quality of life; other no less important parameters are health, food, work, housing, education, etc., but more important than that is understanding that while man has the right to use the environment for his own development, he also has the duty to protect and preserve it for the use of present and future generations, which is not so novel, because it is nothing more than the translation to this matter of the principle of \”injury,\” already consolidated in common law, by virtue of which the legitimate exercise of a right has two essential limits: On the one hand, the equal rights of others and, on the other, the rational exercise and useful enjoyment of the right itself (…)*" Thus, in addition to the right to a healthy environment and the duty of every person to make rational use of natural resources, there is the State's duty to ensure their protection and conservation, as well as the correlative power to impose corresponding sanctions for non-compliance with those duties. That is how Article 50 of the Fundamental Charter establishes the following:

*"(…) Every person has the right to a healthy and ecologically balanced environment. Therefore, they are entitled to report acts that infringe that right and to claim reparation for the damage caused.* *The State shall guarantee, defend, and preserve that right. The law shall determine the corresponding responsibilities and sanctions (…)".* From the foregoing, it is clearly inferred that the State, through the bodies designated for that purpose, is responsible for guaranteeing all persons a healthy and balanced environment, through the mechanisms that the law places at its disposal, in order to avoid irreversible damage to the environment and public health. In addition to this, it must promote the necessary measures so that each person enjoys their right to health (see, among others, Judgment No. 2009-006462 of 12:26 p.m. on April 24, 2009, and Judgment No. 2018-001089 of 09:30 a.m. on January 26, 2018).

**IV.- ON THE SPECIFIC CASE.** In the specific case, the appellant alleges an infringement of the right to a healthy and ecologically balanced environment due to problems caused by the lack of collection and poor treatment of garbage in the Los Cipreses community of Barrio México. In this regard, the petitioner has been reporting this problem since 2015, when on July 28 of that year he filed the first complaint before the Municipalidad de San José. Subsequently, he reiterated the complaints on various dates, such as October 12, 2016, September 25 and October 12, 2018, April 30, 2021, and October 26, 2021. However, as of the date the petitioner came to this court through this summary proceeding, that is, December 13, 2022, the reported problem persists. Even though, on the occasion of the notification of the procedural order issued in this amparo process, the municipal authorities conducted an inspection and determined some actions to follow, the truth is that this is not enough to provide a comprehensive solution to the reported problem.

Furthermore, it is noted that on the occasion of this amparo process, the Department of Environmental Services, in coordination with the Collection Services Section, both dependencies of the Municipalidad de San José, conducted an inspection and determined: a) the neighbors do not respect the garbage collection schedule, so flyers will be distributed to inform them about waste collection, both on business days and holidays; b) to provide cleaning implements to the municipal employees responsible for street cleaning who are assigned to the appellant's locality; c) it was decided to carry out a non-traditional waste collection campaign and that the street cleaning service must be performed three days a week, namely, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays; d) the problems with garbage treatment in the locality where the appellant lives are largely due to the problems caused by an informal settlement that has been established informally and without planning.

From the foregoing, it is extracted that although the respondent municipality has carried out some actions to try to remedy the reported problem, the truth is they have not been sufficient, as the main cause of the garbage problems in Los Cipreses de Barrio México has not been addressed, which is the establishment and development of an informal settlement. This has been known to the respondent municipal corporation, and in its report, the respondent instances thereof assure that the main problem is the growth of that informal settlement. However, the competent municipal authorities have not carried out the acts and inter-institutional coordination to regularize or bring into legal compliance the matters pertaining to the cited settlement, that is, so that said hamlet conforms to the legal regulations, whether municipal or of any other matters, so that in addition to remedying the garbage problem, solutions are sought, even for other risk situations, such as possibilities of fire, safety, among others, which evidently would also be of interest to the appellant. Thus, the lack of attention to the problem caused by the hamlet that has been informally established in the vicinity of the place where the petitioner lives violates his fundamental rights.

It must be borne in mind that Article 169 of the Political Constitution provides that *"The administration of local interests and services in each canton shall be the responsibility of the Municipal Government (...)"*. This rule has been developed by the ordinary legislator; accordingly, Article 3 of the Código Municipal, Law No. 7794 of April 30, 1998, provides that: *"The government and administration of cantonal interests and services shall be the responsibility of the municipal government"*. In this regard, this Constitutional Chamber (Sala Constitucional) -e.g., Judgment No. 1999-5445 of 2:30 p.m. on July 14, 1999, and Judgment No. 2020-010630 of 09:15 a.m. on June 12, 2020- has stated the following:

*"(…) \”VI.- ON THE ATTRIBUTIONS OF MUNICIPALITIES BASED ON SUBJECT MATTER (CONCEPT OF \”THE LOCAL\”). By express constitutional provision -Article 169-, there is an assignment of functions or attributions in favor of local governments based on the subject matter of \”the local,\” that is, \”the administration of the services and interests\” of the locality to which it is circumscribed, for which it is endowed with autonomy (\") Thus, its powers are generic, as there is no detailed enumeration of its own tasks, but rather a simple statement of its scope of competence; but not for that reason indeterminable, to which this Tribunal referred in judgment number 6469-97, at sixteen hours and twenty minutes on October eight, nineteen ninety-seven, in the following terms:* *\” (...) the local has such connotations that defining its scope by the legislator or the judge must lead to maintaining the integrity of local interests and services, so that the legislator could not even enact regulations aimed at dismembering the Municipality (territorial element), unless doing so by observing the procedures previously established in the Political Constitution; nor enact those that place its inhabitants (population) in clear conditions of inferiority relative to the rest of the country; nor those that affect the very essence of the local (government), so as to turn the Corporation into a simple empty container of which only the name subsists, but deactivating the entire regime as it was conceived by the National Constituent Assembly. In another sense, there will be tasks that by their nature are municipal -local- and cannot be removed from that scope of competence to turn them into national services or interests, because doing so would imply dismantling the Municipality, or better yet, emptying it of constitutional content, and for that reason, it is not possible to dictate in advance the insurmountable limits of the local, but rather to unravel what corresponds or does not correspond to the communal government, it must be extracted from the examination made in each specific case (...)\”. From the foregoing, it is highlighted that, by express will of our Fundamental Charter, a specific competence is assigned to local governments, an attribution that is also exclusive to them; that is, it is an original competence of the municipality and only through a nationalization or regionalization law can it be displaced, totally or partially\".* From what was stated in the cited jurisprudential extract, it is inferred that municipalities must ensure the well-being of the residents of their respective circumscription. By virtue of this, knowing the problem caused by the operation of an irregular settlement, with an impact on the problem reported by the petitioner, the Municipalidad de San José should have carried out the corresponding acts to avoid the negative impact on the sphere of rights of the petitioner and other residents of Los Cipreses de Barrio México from the irregular establishment and development of the mentioned hamlet. The municipal actions, moreover, should have included the corresponding coordination with any other institutions with competence in the matter. Indeed, the Chamber has already developed the municipal obligation to coordinate with other state institutions in order to attend to "interests" and fully provide "local services." In the cited Judgment No. 1999-005445 of 2:30 p.m. on July 14, 1999, a criterion reiterated in Judgment No. 2020-010630 of 09:15 a.m. on June 12, 2020, the Chamber stated:

*\"(...) they refer to the obligation of coordination that must exist between local governments, decentralized institutions, and the Executive Branch, to carry out the functions entrusted to them, which must be analyzed from the very nature of municipal autonomy. It is by virtue of the provisions of Article 170 of the Constitution that municipalities (local corporate entities) enjoy functional, administrative, and financial autonomy in the administration of local interests and services (Article 169 of the Political Constitution) (...) A conflict cannot, then, be created due to antagonism or protagonism between the matter that integrates the general purpose of \”local interests and services\” and the \”national\” or \”state\” public interests and services, intrinsically distinct from one another, but which in reality are called to coexist (....) Having defined the material competence of the municipality in a given territorial circumscription, it is clear that there will be tasks that by their nature are exclusively municipal, alongside others that can be considered national or state; for that reason, it is essential to define the form of co-participation of attributions that is inevitable, since the public capacity of municipalities is local, and that of the State and other entities is national; from which it follows that municipal territory is simultaneously state and institutional, to the extent that circumstances require it. That is, municipalities can share their competences with the Public Administration in general, a relationship that must develop under the terms defined in the law (Article 5 of the former Código Municipal, Article 7 of the new Code), which establishes the obligation of \”coordination\” between municipalities and the public institutions that concur in the performance of their competences, to avoid duplication of efforts and contradictions, above all, because only voluntary coordination is compatible with municipal autonomy, being its expression. In other terms, the municipality is called to enter into cooperative relations with other public entities, and vice versa, given the concurrent or coincident nature -in many cases- of interests around a specific matter. In doctrine, coordination is defined from the existence of several independent centers of action, each with its own tasks and decision-making powers, and eventually discrepant; despite this, there must be a community of purposes by subject matter, but by concurrence, insofar as the receiver of the final results of the activity and acts of each one is common\". So, coordination is the ordering of relations between these various independent activities, which takes charge of that concurrence in the same object or entity, to make it useful to a global public plan, without suppressing the reciprocal independence of the acting subjects. Since there is no hierarchical relationship between decentralized institutions, nor the State itself in relation to municipalities, the imposition of certain behaviors on them is not possible, hence the indispensable inter-institutional \”concert\” is required, in a strict sense, insofar as the autonomous and independent centers of action agree on that preventive and global scheme, in which each one fulfills a role with a view to a mission entrusted to the others\".* Under such a state of things and in accordance with the provisions of Article 50 of the Political Constitution, municipalities must devote themselves to the protection of the environment.

Having set forth the foregoing considerations, what has been said is reiterated regarding the obligation of the Municipalidad de San José to execute and coordinate with competent institutions everything necessary to solve the problem reported by the appellant, which has not been definitively solved, largely because the cited municipal corporation has not carried out actions or inter-institutional coordination to regularize the operation of an informally established and developed settlement. Consequently, this amparo appeal is granted, in accordance with the provisions of the operative part of this judgment.

**V.- NOTE BY MAGISTRATE SALAZAR ALVARADO.** In environmental matters, it is also the undersigned's criterion that if intervention by the Public Administration has already occurred, I consider that its knowledge and resolution corresponds to the contentious-administrative jurisdiction. However, I do address the merits of the matter when other rights of the persons affected by the source of contamination are at stake, among them, health, quality of life, and the right to enjoy a healthy and pollution-free environment (Article 50 of the Political Constitution), as is the case here, in which the appellant claims he reported pollution problems from the lack of collection and poor treatment of garbage in the community where he lives, without the Municipalidad de San José having provided a solution to said problem, in violation of the right to enjoy a healthy and ecologically balanced environment and a dignified level of quality of life.

**VI.- Partial dissenting vote (Voto salvado parcial) regarding the operative part of this judgment by Magistrate Garro Vargas.** While I agree with the majority of the Chamber that the appeal must be granted, I differ as to where the enforcement phase of the matter should reside, due to the lack of adequate mechanisms provided by the regulations governing this constitutional jurisdiction to follow up on a judgment involving highly complex technical aspects, as is the case here with correcting the development of the settlement that was established informally near Los Cipreses de Barrio México and thereby providing a definitive solution to the garbage problem afflicting that community, which affects the fundamental rights of the petitioner. Instead, the provisions of the Contentious-Administrative Procedure Code regarding enforcement (article 155 and following) have clear advantages, such as the possibility of requesting timelines, imposing fines, establishing liabilities, monitoring compliance stages, etc. Therefore, in accordance with the provisions of article 56 of the Ley de Jurisdicción Constitucional, I consider that the enforcement phase must be carried out before the Enforcement Area of the Tribunal Contencioso Administrativo y Civil de Hacienda, under the judgment enforcement rules of said Code.

**VII.- DOCUMENTATION SUBMITTED TO THE CASE FILE**. The parties are warned that if they have submitted any paper document, as well as objects or evidence contained in any additional electronic, computer, magnetic, optical, telematic device or one produced by new technologies, these must be retrieved from the office within a maximum period of 30 business days counted from the notification of this judgment. Otherwise, any material not retrieved within this period will be destroyed, in accordance with the provisions of the "Reglamento sobre Expediente Electrónico ante el Poder Judicial", approved by the Corte Plena in session N° 27-11 of August 22, 2011, article XXVI and published in Boletín Judicial number 19 of January 26, 2012, as well as the agreement approved by the Consejo Superior del Poder Judicial, in session N° 43-12 held on May 3, 2012, article LXXXI.

**Por tanto:** The appeal is granted. Johnny Araya Monge, Marco Vinicio Corrales Xatruch, and Emperatriz Ordeñana Ayerdis, in their order, Mayor, Service Provision Manager, and Head of the Department of Environmental Services, all of the Municipalidad de San José, or whoever holds such positions, are ordered to execute the corresponding actions and coordination so that, **within a period of twelve months following the notification of this judgment**, the development of the settlement that was established informally near Los Cipreses de Barrio México is corrected and thereby a definitive solution is provided to the garbage problem afflicting that community, which affects the fundamental rights of the petitioner. The foregoing, under warning that they could incur in the crime defined in article 71 of the Ley de la Jurisdicción Constitucional, which provides for imprisonment of three months to two years, or a fine of twenty to sixty days, for anyone who receives an order that must be complied with or enforced, issued in an amparo appeal, and does not comply with or enforce it, provided the crime is not more severely punished. The Municipalidad de San José is ordered to pay the costs, damages, and losses caused by the facts serving as the basis for this declaration, which shall be liquidated in the enforcement of the judgment within the contentious-administrative jurisdiction. Judge Salazar Alvarado appends a note. Judge Garro Vargas dissents regarding the enforcement of this judgment and, in accordance with article 56 of the Ley de la Jurisdicción Constitucional, orders that it must be carried out before the Enforcement Area of the Tribunal Contencioso Administrativo y Civil de Hacienda, under the enforcement rules established in articles 155 and following of the Código Procesal Contencioso Administrativo. Likewise, she orders that a copy of the judgment be sent to that body so that enforcement proceedings for this ruling may commence.

Notify.---

<p style="margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt; text-align:center; line-height:19.5pt; background-color:#ffffff"><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman'; font-size:7pt; vertical-align:sub">Luis Fdo.

Salazar A.</span></p></td><td style=\"padding-right:5.65pt; padding-left:5.65pt; vertical-align:top\"><p style=\"margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt; text-align:center; line-height:19.5pt; background-color:#ffffff\"><span style=\"font-family:'Times New Roman'; font-size:7pt; vertical-align:sub; -aw-import:ignore\">&#xa0;</span></p></td><td style=\"padding-right:5.65pt; padding-left:5.65pt; vertical-align:top\"><p style=\"margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt; text-align:center; line-height:19.5pt; background-color:#ffffff\"><img src=\"data:image/png;base64,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\" width=\"164\" height=\"74\" alt=\"\" style=\"-aw-left-pos:0pt; -aw-rel-hpos:column; -aw-rel-vpos:paragraph; -aw-top-pos:0pt; -aw-wrap-type:inline\" /></p><p style=\"margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt; text-align:center; line-height:19.5pt; background-color:#ffffff\"><span style=\"font-family:'Times New Roman'; font-size:7pt; vertical-align:sub\">Jorge Araya G.</span></p></td></tr><tr><td style=\"padding-right:5.65pt; padding-left:5.65pt; vertical-align:top\"><p style=\"margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt; text-align:center; line-height:19.5pt; background-color:#ffffff\"><img src=\"data:image/jpeg;base64,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\" width=\"162\" height=\"74\" alt=\"\" style=\"-aw-left-pos:0pt; -aw-rel-hpos:column; -aw-rel-vpos:paragraph; -aw-top-pos:0pt; -aw-wrap-type:inline\" /></p><p style=\"margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt; text-align:center; line-height:19.5pt; background-color:#ffffff\"><span style=\"font-family:'Times New Roman'; font-size:7pt; vertical-align:sub\">Anamari Garro V.</span></p></td><td style=\"padding-right:5.65pt; padding-left:5.65pt; vertical-align:top\"><p style=\"margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt; text-align:center; line-height:19.5pt; background-color:#ffffff\"><span style=\"font-family:'Times New Roman'; font-size:7pt; vertical-align:sub; -aw-import:ignore\">&#xa0;</span></p></td><td style=\"padding-right:5.65pt; padding-left:5.65pt; vertical-align:top\"><p style=\"margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt; text-align:center; line-height:19.5pt; background-color:#ffffff\"><img src=\"data:image/png;base64,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\" width=\"164\" height=\"74\" alt=\"\" style=\"-aw-left-pos:0pt; -aw-rel-hpos:column; -aw-rel-vpos:paragraph; -aw-top-pos:0pt; -aw-wrap-type:inline\" /></p><p style=\"margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt; text-align:center; line-height:19.5pt; background-color:#ffffff\"><span style=\"font-family:'Times New Roman'; font-size:7pt; vertical-align:sub\">Aracelly Pacheco S.</span></p></td></tr></table><p style=\"margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt; text-align:center; line-height:19.5pt; background-color:#ffffff\"><span style=\"vertical-align:sub; -aw-import:ignore\">&#xa0;</span></p><p style=\"margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt; text-align:center; line-height:19.5pt; background-color:#ffffff\"><span style=\"vertical-align:sub; -aw-import:ignore\">&#xa0;</span></p><p style=\"margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt; line-height:19.5pt; background-color:#ffffff\"><span style=\"font-family:'Times New Roman'; font-size:5.33pt; vertical-align:sub\">Documento Firmado Digitalmente</span></p><p style=\"margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt; line-height:19.5pt; background-color:#ffffff\"><span style=\"font-family:'Times New Roman'; font-size:5.33pt; vertical-align:sub\">-- Código verificador --</span></p><p style=\"margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt; line-height:19.5pt; background-color:#ffffff\"><span style=\"font-family:'WASP 39 L'; font-size:9.33pt; vertical-align:sub\">*LDUEZ4LVQ0061*</span></p><p style=\"margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt; line-height:19.5pt; background-color:#ffffff\"><span style=\"font-family:Tahoma; font-size:9.33pt; vertical-align:sub; -aw-import:spaces\">&#xa0;</span><span style=\"font-family:Tahoma; font-size:9.33pt; vertical-align:sub\">LDUEZ4LVQ0061 </span></p><div style=\"-aw-headerfooter-type:footer-primary; clear:both\"><p style=\"margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt; text-align:right; widows:2; orphans:2; font-size:12pt; background-color:#ffffff\"><span style=\"-aw-field-start:true\"></span><span style=\"-aw-field-code:'PAGE'\"></span><span style=\"-aw-field-separator:true\"></span><span>1</span><span style=\"-aw-field-end:true\"></span></p><p style=\"margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt; widows:2; orphans:2; font-size:12pt; background-color:#ffffff\"><span style=\"font-family:'Times New Roman'; -aw-import:ignore\">&#xa0;</span></p></div></div></body></html>" of January 26, 2018).</span></p><p style="margin-top:12pt; margin-bottom:12pt; text-align:justify"><span> </span></p><p style="margin-top:12pt; margin-bottom:12pt; text-align:justify"><span>IV.- REGARDING THE SPECIFIC CASE. In the specific case, the petitioner alleges an infringement of the right to a healthy and ecologically balanced environment due to problems stemming from the lack of collection and poor treatment of garbage in the Los Cipreses de Barrio México community. To this effect, the protected party has been denouncing said problem since 2015, when on July 28 of that year he filed the first complaint before the Municipalidad de San José. Subsequently, he reiterated the complaints on various dates, such as October 12, 2016, September 25 and October 12, 2018, April 30, 2021, and October 26, 2021. However, as of the date the protected party came to this venue through this summary proceeding, that is, December 13, 2022, the reported problem persists. Even though on the occasion of the notification of the order granting leave issued in this amparo proceeding, the municipal authorities conducted an inspection and determined some actions to follow, the truth is that this is insufficient to provide a comprehensive solution to the reported problem.</span></p><p style="margin-top:12pt; margin-bottom:12pt; text-align:justify"><span> </span></p><p style="margin-top:12pt; margin-bottom:12pt; text-align:justify"><span>Moreover, it is noted that on the occasion of this amparo proceeding, the Department of Environmental Services (Departamento de Servicios Ambientales), in coordination with the Collection Services Section (Sección de Servicios de Recolección), both dependencies of the Municipalidad de San José, conducted an inspection and determined: a) the neighbors do not respect the garbage collection schedule, so leaflets will be distributed to inform about waste collection, both on business days and on holidays; b) to provide cleaning implements to the municipal employees in charge of street cleaning who are stationed in the petitioner's locality; c) it was arranged to carry out a non-traditional waste collection campaign and that the street cleaning service must be performed three days a week, specifically, Tuesdays, Thursdays</span><span> </span><span> and Saturdays; d) the problems with garbage treatment in the locality where the petitioner lives are largely due to the problems caused by an informal settlement that has been established informally and without planning.</span></p><p style="margin-top:12pt; margin-bottom:12pt; text-align:justify"><span> </span></p><p style="margin-top:12pt; margin-bottom:12pt; text-align:justify"><span>From the foregoing, it is inferred that even though the respondent municipality has taken some actions to attempt to remedy the reported problem, the truth is that they have not been sufficient, as the main cause of the garbage problems in Los Cipreses de Barrio México has not been addressed, namely, the establishment and development of an informal settlement. This has been known to the respondent municipal corporation and, in its report, the respondent instances within it assert that the main problem is the growth of that informal settlement. Nevertheless, the competent municipal authorities have not carried out the necessary actions and inter-institutional coordination to regularize or bring into compliance with the law the matters related to the cited settlement, that is, so that said hamlet conforms to the legal regulations, whether municipal or of any other matters, in order that, in addition to remedying the garbage problem, solutions are sought even to other risk situations, such as fire hazards, security issues, among others, which would evidently also be of interest to the petitioner. Thus, the lack of attention to the problems caused by the hamlet that has been established informally in the vicinity of the place where the amparo petitioner resides violates his fundamental rights.</span></p><p style="margin-top:12pt; margin-bottom:12pt; text-align:justify"><span> </span></p><p style="margin-top:12pt; margin-bottom:12pt; text-align:justify"><span>It must be borne in mind that Article 169 of the Constitución Política provides that "The administration of local interests and services in each canton shall be in charge of the Municipal Government (...)". This norm has been developed by the ordinary legislator; in response, Article 3 of the Código Municipal, Ley N° 7794 of April 30, 1998, provides that: "The government and administration of cantonal interests and services shall be in charge of the municipal government". In this regard, this Sala Constitucional -e.g., Sentencia N° 1999-5445 of 2:30 p.m. on July 14, 1999, and Sentencia N° 2020-010630 of 9:15 a.m. on June 12, 2020- has stated the following:</span></p><p style="margin-top:12pt; margin-bottom:12pt; text-align:justify"><span> </span></p><p style="margin-top:12pt; margin-bottom:12pt; text-align:justify"><span>"(...) "VI.- OF THE POWERS OF MUNICIPALITIES BY REASON OF SUBJECT MATTER (CONCEPT OF 'THE LOCAL'). By express constitutional provision -Article 169-, there is an assignment of functions or powers in favor of local governments by reason of the subject matter of 'the local,' that is, 'the administration of local services and interests' of the locality to which it is circumscribed, for which it is endowed with autonomy. Therefore, its powers are generic, insofar as there is no detailed enumeration of its own tasks, but rather a simple enunciation of the scope of its competence; but not for that reason indeterminable, to which this Court referred in ruling number 6469-97, at four twenty p.m. on October eight, nineteen ninety-seven, in the following terms:</span></p><p style="margin-top:12pt; margin-bottom:12pt; text-align:justify"><span> </span></p><p style="margin-top:12pt; margin-bottom:12pt; text-align:justify"><span>"(...) the local has such a connotation that defining its scope by the legislator or the judge must lead to maintaining the integrity of local interests and services, such that the legislator could not even enact regulations tending to dismember the Municipality (territorial element), if it does not do so observing the procedures previously established in the Constitución Política; nor could it enact those that place its inhabitants (population) in clear conditions of inferiority in relation to the rest of the country; nor those that affect the very essence of the local (government), such that the Corporation becomes a simple empty container from which only the name subsists, but deactivating the entire regime as it was conceived by the Asamblea Nacional Constituyente. Conversely, there shall be tasks that by their nature are municipal -local- and cannot be removed from that sphere of competence to turn them into national services or interests, because doing so would imply dismantling the Municipality, or better yet, emptying it of constitutional content, and therefore, it is not possible beforehand to dictate the insurmountable limits of the local; rather, to unravel what corresponds or not to the communal government, it must be extracted from the examination made in each specific case (...)." From the foregoing, the fact that, by express will of our Carta Fundamental, a specific competence is assigned to local governments stands out, an attribution that is also exclusive to them; that is, it is an original competence of the municipality and only through a nationalization or regionalization law can it be displaced, totally or partially."</span></p><p style="margin-top:12pt; margin-bottom:12pt; text-align:justify"><span> </span></p><p style="margin-top:12pt; margin-bottom:12pt; text-align:justify"><span>From what is stated in the cited jurisprudential excerpt, it is inferred that the municipalities must ensure the well-being of the residents (munícipes) of their respective district. By virtue of this, aware of the problems caused by the operation of an irregular settlement, with an impact on the problem reported by the protected party, the Municipalidad de San José should have taken the appropriate actions to prevent the negative impact on the sphere of rights of the protected party and other residents of Los Cipreses de Barrio México by the irregular establishment and development of the mentioned hamlet. The municipal actions should also have included the corresponding coordination with any other institutions with competence in the matter. Indeed, the Chamber has already developed the municipal obligation to coordinate with other state institutions in order to attend to the "interests" and fully provide "local services." In the cited Sentencia N° 1999-005445 of 2:30 p.m. on July 14, 1999, a criterion reiterated in Sentencia N° 2020-010630 of 9:15 a.m. on June 12, 2020, the Chamber stated:</span></p><p style="margin-top:12pt; margin-bottom:12pt; text-align:justify"><span> </span></p><p style="margin-top:12pt; margin-bottom:12pt; text-align:justify"><span>"(...) they refer to the coordination obligation that must exist between local governments, decentralized institutions, and the Executive Branch, to carry out the functions entrusted to them, which must be analyzed based on the very nature of municipal autonomy. It is by virtue of the provisions of Article 170 of the Constitution, that municipalities (local corporate entities) enjoy functional, administrative, and financial autonomy in the administration of local interests and services (Article 169 of the Constitución Política) (...) A conflict cannot, then, be created by antagonism or protagonism between the matter that constitutes the general purpose of 'local interests and services' and 'national' or 'state' public interests and services, intrinsically distinct from each other, but which in reality are called to coexist (....) Once the material competence of the municipality in a given territorial district is defined, it is clear that there will be tasks that by their nature are exclusively municipal, alongside others that may be considered national or state; therefore, it is essential to define the form of co-participation of attributions that is inevitable, since the public capacity of the municipalities is local, and that of the State and other entities is national; from which it follows that the municipal territory is simultaneously state and institutional, to the extent required by the circumstances. That is, municipalities can share their competencies with the Public Administration in general, a relationship that must be conducted in the terms as it is defined in the law (Article 5 of the former Código Municipal, Article 7 of the new Code), which establishes the obligation of 'coordination' between the municipalities and the public institutions that concur in the performance of their competencies, to avoid duplication of efforts and contradictions, above all, because only voluntary coordination is compatible with municipal autonomy as it is its expression. In other terms, the municipality is called to enter into cooperative relationships with other public entities, and vice versa, given the concurrent or coincident nature -in many cases- of interests regarding a specific matter. In doctrine, coordination is defined based on the existence of several independent centers of action, each with its own tasks and decision-making powers, potentially discrepant; despite this, there must be a community of purposes by subject matter, but by concurrence, insofar as the object receiving the final results of the activity and acts of each one is common." Therefore, coordination is the ordering of relations between these various independent activities, taking charge of that concurrence on the same object or entity, to make it useful for a global public plan, without suppressing the reciprocal independence of the acting subjects. Since there is no hierarchical relationship between decentralized institutions, nor between the State itself and the municipalities, it is not possible to impose determined conduct on them, hence the essential inter-institutional 'agreement' arises, in the strict sense, insofar as the autonomous and independent centers of action agree on that preventive and global scheme, in which each one plays a role in view of a mission entrusted to the others."</span></p><p style="margin-top:12pt; margin-bottom:12pt; text-align:justify"><span>Under such a state of affairs and in accordance with the provisions of Article 50 of the Constitución Política, municipalities must exert themselves in the protection of the environment.</span></p><p style="margin-top:12pt; margin-bottom:12pt; text-align:justify"><span>Having set forth the foregoing considerations, what has been said is reiterated regarding the obligation of the Municipalidad de San José to execute and coordinate with competent institutions everything necessary to solve the problem reported by the petitioner, which has not been definitively resolved, largely because the cited municipal corporation has not taken actions or inter-institutional coordination to regularize the operation of an informally established and developed settlement. Consequently, this recurso de amparo is granted, in accordance with the provisions of the operative part of this judgment. (...)”</span></p><p style="margin-top:12pt; margin-bottom:12pt; text-align:justify"><span>ARTICLE 50 OF THE CONSTITUCIÓN POLÍTICA</span></p><p style="margin-top:12pt; margin-bottom:12pt; text-align:justify"><span style="font-style:italic">“(…) III.- REGARDING THE RIGHT TO A HEALTHY AND BALANCED ENVIRONMENT. Article 50 of the Constitución Política establishes that every person has the right to a healthy and ecologically balanced environment, as the protection of this right is one of the factors guaranteeing the exercise of the right to health contained in Article 21 of the Constitution. Likewise, Article 89 of the Carta Magna enshrines the duty of the State to maintain and protect natural riches. In that sense, this Court, through Sentencia N° 3705-93 of 3:00 p.m. on July 30, 1993, indicated that:</span></p><p style="margin-top:12pt; margin-bottom:12pt; text-align:justify"><span style="font-style:italic"> </span></p><p style="margin-top:12pt; margin-bottom:12pt; text-align:justify"><span style="font-style:italic">"(…)Environmental quality is a parameter of that quality of life; other no less important parameters are health, food, work, housing, education, etc., but more important than that is understanding that while man has the right to use the environment for his own development, he also has the duty to protect and preserve it for the use of present and future generations, which is not so novel, because it is nothing more than the translation into this matter of the principle of 'injury,' already consolidated in common law, by virtue of which the legitimate exercise of a right has two essential limits: On one hand, the equal rights of others and, on the other, the rational exercise and useful enjoyment of the right itself (…)"</span></p><p style="margin-top:12pt; margin-bottom:12pt; text-align:justify"><span style="font-style:italic"> </span></p><p style="margin-top:12pt; margin-bottom:12pt; text-align:justify"><span style="font-style:italic">Thus, added to the right to a healthy environment and the duty of every person to make rational use of natural resources, is the duty of the State to ensure their protection and conservation, as well as the correlative faculty to impose the corresponding sanctions for non-compliance with those duties. It is thus that Article 50 of the Carta Fundamental establishes the following:</span></p><p style="margin-top:12pt; margin-bottom:12pt; text-align:justify"><span style="font-style:italic"> </span></p><p style="margin-top:12pt; margin-bottom:12pt; text-align:justify"><span style="font-style:italic">"(…) Every person has the right to a healthy and ecologically balanced environment. Therefore, they are entitled to denounce acts that infringe upon that right and to claim reparation for the damage caused.</span></p><p style="margin-top:12pt; margin-bottom:12pt; text-align:justify"><span style="font-style:italic">The State shall guarantee, defend, and preserve that right. The law shall determine the corresponding responsibilities and sanctions (…)".</span></p><p style="margin-top:12pt; margin-bottom:12pt; text-align:justify"><span style="font-style:italic"> </span><span style="font-style:italic">From the cited text, it clearly follows that the State, through the bodies designated for this purpose, is in charge of guaranteeing all persons a healthy and balanced environment, through the mechanisms that the law makes available, in order to avoid irreversible damage to the environment and public health. Added to this, it must promote the necessary measures so that each person enjoys their right to health (see, among others, Sentencia N° 2009-006462 of 12:26 p.m. on April 24, 2009, and Sentencia N° 2018-001089 of 9:30 a.m. on January 26, 2018). (…)”</span><span> VCG02/2023</span></p><p style="margin-top:12pt; margin-bottom:12pt; text-align:justify"><span>ARTICLE 169 OF THE CONSTITUCIÓN POLÍTICA</span></p><p style="margin-top:12pt; margin-bottom:12pt; text-align:justify"><span style="font-style:italic">“(…) It must be borne in mind that Article 169 of the Constitución Política provides that "The administration of local interests and services in each canton shall be in charge of the Municipal Government (...)". This norm has been developed by the ordinary legislator; in response, Article 3 of the Código Municipal, Ley N° 7794 of April 30, 1998, provides that: "The government and administration of cantonal interests and services shall be in charge of the municipal government". In this regard, this Sala Constitucional -e.g., Sentencia N° 1999-5445 of 2:30 p.m. on July 14, 1999, and Sentencia N° 2020-010630 of 9:15 a.m. on June 12, 2020- has stated the following:</span></p><p style="margin-top:12pt; margin-bottom:12pt; text-align:justify"><span style="font-style:italic"> </span></p><p style="margin-top:12pt; margin-bottom:12pt; text-align:justify"><span style="font-style:italic">“(…) "VI.- OF THE POWERS OF MUNICIPALITIES BY REASON OF SUBJECT MATTER (CONCEPT OF 'THE LOCAL'). By express constitutional provision -Article 169-, there is an assignment of functions or powers in favor of local governments by reason of the subject matter of 'the local,' that is, 'the administration of local services and interests' of the locality to which it is circumscribed, for which it is endowed with autonomy. Therefore, its powers are generic, insofar as there is no detailed enumeration of its own tasks, but rather a simple enunciation of the scope of its competence; but not for that reason indeterminable, to which this Court referred in ruling number 6469-97, at four twenty p.m. on October eight, nineteen ninety-seven, in the following terms:</span></p><p style="margin-top:12pt; margin-bottom:12pt; text-align:justify"><span style="font-style:italic"> </span></p><p style="margin-top:12pt; margin-bottom:12pt; text-align:justify"><span style="font-style:italic">" (...) the local has such a connotation that defining its scope by the legislator or the judge must lead to maintaining the integrity of local interests and services, such that the legislator could not even enact regulations tending to dismember the Municipality (territorial element), if it does not do so observing the procedures previously established in the Constitución Política; nor could it enact those that place its inhabitants (population) in clear conditions of inferiority in relation to the rest of the country; nor those that affect the very essence of the local (government), such that the Corporation becomes a simple empty container from which only the name subsists, but deactivating the entire regime as it was conceived by the Asamblea Nacional Constituyente. Conversely, there shall be tasks that by their nature are municipal -local- and cannot be removed from that sphere of competence to turn them into national services or interests, because doing so would imply dismantling the Municipality, or better yet, emptying it of constitutional content, and therefore, it is not possible beforehand to dictate the insurmountable limits of the local; rather, to unravel what corresponds or not to the communal government, it must be extracted from the examination made in each specific case (...)." From the foregoing, the fact that, by express will of our Carta Fundamental, a specific competence is assigned to local governments stands out, an attribution that is also exclusive to them; that is, it is an original competence of the municipality and only through a nationalization or regionalization law can it be displaced, totally or partially."</span></p><p style="margin-top:12pt; margin-bottom:12pt; text-align:justify"><span style="font-style:italic">From what is stated in the cited jurisprudential excerpt, it is inferred that the municipalities must ensure the well-being of the residents (munícipes) of their respective district. By virtue of this, aware of the problems caused by the operation of an irregular settlement, with an impact on the problem reported by the protected party, the Municipalidad de San José should have taken the appropriate actions to prevent the negative impact on the sphere of rights of the protected party and other residents of Los Cipreses de Barrio México by the irregular establishment and development of the mentioned hamlet. The municipal actions should also have included the corresponding coordination with any other institutions with competence in the matter. Indeed, the Chamber has already developed the municipal obligation to coordinate with other state institutions in order to attend to the "interests" and fully provide "local services." (…)”</span><span> VCG02/2023</span></p><p style="margin-top:12pt; margin-bottom:12pt; text-align:justify"><span>V.- NOTE FROM MAGISTRATE SALAZAR ALVARADO.</span></p> In environmental matters, it is also the undersigned’s criterion that if the Public Administration has already intervened, I consider that its knowledge and resolution corresponds to the administrative contentious jurisdiction. However, I do proceed to hear the merits of the matter when other rights of the persons affected by the source of contamination are at stake, among them, health, quality of life and the right to enjoy a healthy environment free from contamination (Article 50 of the Political Constitution), as is the case here, in which the appellant claims that they reported contamination problems due to the lack of collection and poor treatment of garbage in the community where they live, without the Municipalidad de San José having provided a solution to said problem, in violation of the right to enjoy a healthy and ecologically balanced environment and a decent level of quality of life.

VCG02/2023 VI.- Partial dissenting vote regarding the operative part of this judgment of Magistrate Garro Vargas. Although I agree with the majority of the Chamber that the appeal must be granted, I differ on where to place the enforcement phase of the matter, due to the lack of adequate mechanisms provided by the regulations governing this constitutional jurisdiction to follow up on a judgment that involves highly complex technical aspects, as is the case here to correct the development of the settlement that was established informally in the vicinity of Los Cipreses de Barrio México and thereby provide a definitive solution to the garbage problem affecting that community, which affects the fundamental rights of the amparo petitioner. In contrast, the provisions of the Contentious-Administrative Procedure Code regarding enforcement (Article 155 and following) have evident advantages, such as the possibility of requesting schedules, imposing fines, establishing responsibilities, supervising compliance stages, etc. Therefore, in accordance with the provisions of Article 56 of the Constitutional Jurisdiction Law, I consider that the enforcement phase must be carried out before the Enforcement Area of the Tribunal Contencioso Administrativo y Civil de Hacienda, under the judgment enforcement rules of said Code.

VCG02/2023 </p></div><div style="margin-left:38.9pt; background-color:#ffffff"><p style="margin-top:0pt; margin-left:14.6pt; margin-bottom:0pt; text-indent:-14.6pt; text-align:justify; line-height:150%; widows:2; orphans:2; font-size:14pt; -aw-import:list-item; -aw-list-level-number:0; -aw-list-number-format:'%0.'; -aw-list-number-styles:'decimal'; -aw-list-number-values:'6'; -aw-list-padding-sml:7.48pt"><span style="-aw-import:ignore"><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman'; font-size:9.5pt; font-weight:bold">6.</span><span style="width:7.48pt; font:7pt 'Times New Roman'; display:inline-block; -aw-import:spaces">&#xa0;&#xa0;&#xa0;&#xa0; </span></span><span style="line-height:150%; font-family:'Times New Roman'; font-size:9.33pt; vertical-align:sub">By email dated October 26, 2021, addressed to the accounts </span><a href="mailto:[email protected]" style="text-decoration:none"><span style="line-height:150%; font-family:'Times New Roman'; font-size:9.33pt; text-decoration:underline; vertical-align:sub; color:#0000ff">...13</span></a><span style="line-height:150%; font-family:'Times New Roman'; font-size:9.33pt; vertical-align:sub">, </span><a href="mailto:[email protected]" style="text-decoration:none"><span style="line-height:150%; font-family:'Times New Roman'; font-size:9.33pt; text-decoration:underline; vertical-align:sub; color:#0000ff">...14</span></a><span style="line-height:150%; font-family:'Times New Roman'; font-size:9.33pt; vertical-align:sub">, </span><a href="mailto:[email protected]" style="text-decoration:none"><span style="line-height:150%; font-family:'Times New Roman'; font-size:9.33pt; text-decoration:underline; vertical-align:sub; color:#0000ff">...15</span></a><span style="line-height:150%; font-family:'Times New Roman'; font-size:9.33pt; vertical-align:sub">, </span><a href="mailto:[email protected]" style="text-decoration:none"><span style="line-height:150%; font-family:'Times New Roman'; font-size:9.33pt; text-decoration:underline; vertical-align:sub; color:#0000ff">...16</span></a><span style="line-height:150%; font-family:'Times New Roman'; font-size:9.33pt; vertical-align:sub"> and </span><a href="mailto:[email protected]" style="text-decoration:none"><span style="line-height:150%; font-family:'Times New Roman'; font-size:9.33pt; text-decoration:underline; vertical-align:sub; color:#0000ff">...17</span></a><span style="line-height:150%; font-family:'Times New Roman'; font-size:9.33pt; vertical-align:sub">, the appellant reiterated to the Municipalidad de San José the complaints regarding garbage problems in the Los Cipreses community in Barrio México (evidence provided).</span></p></div><div style="margin-left:38.9pt; background-color:#ffffff"><p style="margin-top:0pt; margin-left:14.6pt; margin-bottom:0pt; text-indent:-14.6pt; text-align:justify; line-height:150%; widows:2; orphans:2; font-size:14pt; -aw-import:list-item; -aw-list-level-number:0; -aw-list-number-format:'%0.'; -aw-list-number-styles:'decimal'; -aw-list-number-values:'7'; -aw-list-padding-sml:7.48pt"><span style="-aw-import:ignore"><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman'; font-size:9.5pt; font-weight:bold">7.</span><span style="width:7.48pt; font:7pt 'Times New Roman'; display:inline-block; -aw-import:spaces">&#xa0;&#xa0;&#xa0;&#xa0; </span></span><span style="line-height:150%; font-family:'Times New Roman'; font-size:9.33pt; vertical-align:sub">As of the date of filing this appeal, that is, December 13, 2022, the issue reported by the appellant persists (report and evidence provided).</span></p></div><div style="margin-left:38.9pt; background-color:#ffffff"><p style="margin-top:0pt; margin-left:14.6pt; margin-bottom:0pt; text-indent:-14.6pt; text-align:justify; line-height:150%; widows:2; orphans:2; font-size:14pt; -aw-import:list-item; -aw-list-level-number:0; -aw-list-number-format:'%0.'; -aw-list-number-styles:'decimal'; -aw-list-number-values:'8'; -aw-list-padding-sml:7.48pt"><span style="-aw-import:ignore"><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman'; font-size:9.5pt; font-weight:bold">8.</span><span style="width:7.48pt; font:7pt 'Times New Roman'; display:inline-block; -aw-import:spaces">&#xa0;&#xa0;&#xa0;&#xa0; </span></span><span style="line-height:150%; font-family:'Times New Roman'; font-size:9.33pt; vertical-align:sub">The initial resolution issued in this proceeding was notified to the respondent authorities on January 16, 2023 (notification records).</span></p></div><div style="margin-left:38.9pt; margin-bottom:5pt; background-color:#ffffff"><p style="margin-top:0pt; margin-left:14.6pt; margin-bottom:0pt; text-indent:-14.6pt; text-align:justify; line-height:150%; widows:2; orphans:2; font-size:14pt; -aw-import:list-item; -aw-list-level-number:0; -aw-list-number-format:'%0.'; -aw-list-number-styles:'decimal'; -aw-list-number-values:'9'; -aw-list-padding-sml:7.48pt"><span style="-aw-import:ignore"><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman'; font-size:9.5pt; font-weight:bold">9.</span><span style="width:7.48pt; font:7pt 'Times New Roman'; display:inline-block; -aw-import:spaces">&#xa0;&#xa0;&#xa0;&#xa0; </span></span><span style="line-height:150%; font-family:'Times New Roman'; font-size:9.33pt; vertical-align:sub">Upon notification of the initial resolution issued in this proceeding, the Department of Environmental Services (Departamento de Servicios Ambientales), in coordination with the Collection Services Section (Sección de Servicios de Recolección), conducted an inspection and determined: </span><span style="line-height:150%; font-family:'Times New Roman'; font-size:9.33pt; font-weight:bold; vertical-align:sub">a)</span><span style="line-height:150%; font-family:'Times New Roman'; font-size:9.33pt; vertical-align:sub"> residents do not respect the garbage collection schedule, so leaflets will be distributed to inform them about waste collection, both on business days and on holidays; </span><span style="line-height:150%; font-family:'Times New Roman'; font-size:9.33pt; font-weight:bold; vertical-align:sub">b)</span><span style="line-height:150%; font-family:'Times New Roman'; font-size:9.33pt; vertical-align:sub"> provide cleaning implements to the municipal employees responsible for street sweeping (limpieza de vías) who are assigned to the appellant's locality; </span><span style="line-height:150%; font-family:'Times New Roman'; font-size:9.33pt; font-weight:bold; vertical-align:sub">c)</span><span style="line-height:150%; font-family:'Times New Roman'; font-size:9.33pt; vertical-align:sub"> it was decided to carry out a non-traditional waste collection campaign and that the street sweeping service must be performed three days a week, namely, Tuesdays, Thursdays,</span><span style="line-height:150%; font-family:'Times New Roman'; font-size:9.33pt; vertical-align:sub; -aw-import:spaces">&#xa0; </span><span style="line-height:150%; font-family:'Times New Roman'; font-size:9.33pt; vertical-align:sub">and Saturdays; </span><span style="line-height:150%; font-family:'Times New Roman'; font-size:9.33pt; font-weight:bold; vertical-align:sub">d)</span><span style="line-height:150%; font-family:'Times New Roman'; font-size:9.33pt; vertical-align:sub"> the problems with garbage disposal in the locality where the appellant lives are largely due to problems caused by an informal settlement (asentamiento informal) that has been established informally and without planning (report and evidence provided).</span></p></div><p style="margin-top:5pt; margin-bottom:5pt; text-indent:35.4pt; text-align:justify; line-height:150%; widows:2; orphans:2; font-size:14pt; background-color:#ffffff"><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman'; font-weight:bold">III.- ON THE RIGHT TO A HEALTHY AND BALANCED ENVIRONMENT.</span><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman'">&#xa0;</span><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman'">Article 50 of the Political Constitution establishes that all persons have the right to a healthy and ecologically balanced environment, as the protection of this right is one of the factors that guarantee the exercise of the right to health contained in Article 21 of the Constitution. Likewise, Article 89 of the Magna Carta enshrines the State's duty to maintain and protect natural resources. In that regard, this Court, through Judgment No. 3705-93 of 3:00 p.m. on July 30, 1993, stated that:</span></p><p style="margin-top:5pt; margin-bottom:0pt; text-indent:35.4pt; text-align:justify; line-height:150%; widows:2; orphans:2; font-size:14pt; background-color:#ffffff"><span style="line-height:150%; font-family:'Times New Roman'; font-size:9.33pt; font-style:italic; vertical-align:sub">"(…) Environmental quality is a parameter of that quality of life; other no less important parameters are health, food, work, housing, education, etc., but more important than that is understanding that while man has the right to use the environment for his own development, he also has the duty to protect and preserve it for the use of present and future generations, which is not so novel, because it is nothing more than the translation to this area of the principle of 'harm' ('lesión'), already consolidated in common law, by virtue of which the legitimate exercise of a right has two essential limits: On the one hand, the equal rights of others and, on the other, the rational exercise and useful enjoyment of the right itself (…)"</span></p><p style="margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt; text-indent:35.4pt; text-align:justify; line-height:150%; widows:2; orphans:2; font-size:14pt; background-color:#ffffff"><span style="line-height:150%; font-family:'Times New Roman'; font-size:9.33pt; vertical-align:sub">Thus, coupled with the right to a healthy environment and the duty of each person to make rational use of natural resources, is the State's duty to ensure their protection and conservation, as well as the correlative power to impose the corresponding sanctions for the breach of those duties. It is thus that Article 50 of the Fundamental Charter establishes the following:</span></p><p style="margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt; text-indent:35.4pt; text-align:justify; line-height:150%; widows:2; orphans:2; font-size:14pt; background-color:#ffffff"><span style="line-height:150%; font-family:'Times New Roman'; font-size:9.33pt; font-style:italic; vertical-align:sub">"(…) Every person has the right to a healthy and ecologically balanced environment. Therefore, they are entitled to report acts that infringe upon that right and to claim reparation for the damage caused.</span></p><p style="margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt; text-indent:28.35pt; text-align:justify; line-height:150%; widows:2; orphans:2; font-size:14pt; background-color:#ffffff"><span style="line-height:150%; font-family:'Times New Roman'; font-size:9.33pt; font-style:italic; vertical-align:sub">The State shall guarantee, defend, and preserve that right. The law shall determine the corresponding responsibilities and sanctions (…)".</span></p><p style="margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt; text-indent:28.35pt; text-align:justify; line-height:150%; widows:2; orphans:2; font-size:14pt; background-color:#ffffff"><span style="line-height:150%; font-family:'Times New Roman'; font-size:9.33pt; vertical-align:sub">From the foregoing, it is clearly evident that the State, through the bodies designated for that purpose, is responsible for guaranteeing all persons a healthy and balanced environment, through the mechanisms that the law makes available to it, in order to avoid irreversible damage to the environment and public health. In addition to this, it must promote the necessary measures so that each person may enjoy their right to health (see, among others, Judgment No. 2009-006462 of 12:26 p.m. on April 24, 2009 and Judgment No. 2018-001089 of 09:30 a.m. on January 26, 2018).</span></p><p style="margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt; text-indent:35.4pt; text-align:justify; line-height:150%; widows:2; orphans:2; font-size:14pt; background-color:#ffffff"><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman'; font-weight:bold">IV.- ON THE SPECIFIC CASE. </span><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman'">In the specific case, the appellant alleges an infringement of the right to a healthy and ecologically balanced environment due to problems with the lack of collection and poor disposal of garbage in the Los Cipreses community of Barrio México. In this regard, the petitioner has been reporting this issue since 2015, when on July 28 of that year he filed the first complaint with the Municipalidad de San José. Subsequently, he reiterated the complaints on various dates, such as October 12, 2016, September 25 and October 12, 2018, April 30, 2021, and October 26, 2021. However, as of the date the petitioner came to this court through this summary proceeding, that is, December 13, 2022, the reported problem persists. Although upon notification of the initial resolution issued in this amparo proceeding, the municipal authorities conducted an inspection and determined some actions to be taken, the fact is that this is not enough to provide a comprehensive solution to the reported problem. </span></p><p style="margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt; text-indent:35.4pt; text-align:justify; line-height:150%; widows:2; orphans:2; font-size:14pt; background-color:#ffffff"><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman'">Furthermore, it is recorded that upon this amparo proceeding, the Department of Environmental Services (Departamento de Servicios Ambientales), in coordination with the Collection Services Section (Sección de Servicios de Recolección), both divisions of the Municipalidad de San José, conducted an inspection and determined: </span><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman'; font-weight:bold">a)</span><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman'"> residents do not respect the garbage collection schedule, so leaflets will be distributed to inform them about waste collection, both on business days and on holidays; </span><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman'; font-weight:bold">b)</span><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman'"> provide cleaning implements to the municipal employees responsible for street sweeping who are assigned to the appellant's locality; </span><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman'; font-weight:bold">c)</span><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman'"> it was decided to carry out a non-traditional waste collection campaign and that the street sweeping service must be performed three days a week, namely, Tuesdays, Thursdays,</span><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman'; -aw-import:spaces">&#xa0; </span><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman'">and Saturdays; </span><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman'; font-weight:bold">d)</span><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman'"> the problems with garbage disposal in the locality where the appellant lives are largely due to problems caused by an informal settlement (asentamiento informal) that has been established informally and without planning.</span></p><p style="margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt; text-indent:35.4pt; text-align:justify; line-height:150%; widows:2; orphans:2; font-size:14pt; background-color:#ffffff"><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman'">From the foregoing, it follows that although the respondent municipality has taken some actions in an attempt to remedy the reported problem, the fact is that these have not been sufficient, as they have not addressed the main cause of the garbage problems in Los Cipreses of Barrio México, which is the establishment and development of an informal settlement. This has been known to the respondent municipal corporation, and in its report, the respondent divisions thereof assert that the main problem is the growth of that informal settlement. However, the competent municipal authorities have not carried out the acts and inter-institutional coordination to regularize or bring into legal compliance the matters pertaining to the settlement in question, that is, so that said hamlet conforms to legal regulations, whether municipal or of any other subject matter, so that in addition to remedying the garbage problem, solutions are also sought for other risk situations, such as fire hazards, security issues, among others, which would evidently also be of interest to the appellant. Thus, the lack of attention to the issue caused by the hamlet that has been established informally in the vicinity of the place where the petitioner resides violates his fundamental rights.</span></p><p style="margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt; text-indent:35.4pt; text-align:justify; line-height:150%; widows:2; orphans:2; font-size:14pt; background-color:#ffffff"><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman'">It must be kept in mind that Article 169 of the Political Constitution provides that </span><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman'; font-style:italic">"The administration of local interests and services in each canton shall be the responsibility of the Municipal Government (...)"</span><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman'">. This rule has been developed by the ordinary legislator; accordingly, Article 3 of the Municipal Code (Código Municipal), Law No. 7794 of April 30, 1998, provides that: </span><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman'; font-style:italic">"The government and administration of cantonal interests and services shall be the responsibility of the municipal government"</span><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman'">. In this regard, this Constitutional Chamber - v.gr., Judgment No. 1999-5445 of 2:30 p.m. on July 14, 1999 and Judgment No. 2020-010630 of 09:15 a.m. on June 12, 2020 - has stated the following: </span></p><p style="margin:0pt 28.35pt; text-indent:35.45pt; text-align:justify; line-height:150%; widows:2; orphans:2; font-size:14pt; background-color:#ffffff"><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman'">“(…) </span><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman'; font-style:italic">"VI.- OF THE ATTRIBUTIONS OF MUNICIPALITIES BY REASON OF SUBJECT MATTER (CONCEPT OF 'THE LOCAL'). By express constitutional provision - Article 169 -, there is an assignment of functions or attributions in favor of local governments by reason of subject matter to 'the local', that is, 'the administration of the services and interests' of the locality to which it is circumscribed, for which it is endowed with autonomy (") Thus, their powers are generic, as there is no detailed enumeration of their own duties, but merely a statement of the scope of their competence; but not for that reason indeterminable, to which this Court referred in judgment number 6469-97, of four twenty p.m. on October eight, nineteen ninety-seven, in the following terms:</span></p><p style="margin:0pt 28.35pt; text-indent:35.45pt; text-align:justify; line-height:150%; widows:2; orphans:2; font-size:14pt; background-color:#ffffff"><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman'; font-style:italic">" (...) the local has such a connotation that defining its scope by the legislator or the judge must lead to maintaining the integrity of local interests and services, so that not even the legislator could dictate regulations that tend to dismantle the Municipality (territorial element), if it is not done by observing the procedures previously established in the Political Constitution; nor promulgate those that place its inhabitants (population) in clear conditions of inferiority in relation to the rest of the country; nor those that affect the very essence of the local (government), so that the Corporation becomes a mere empty container of which only the name subsists, but deactivating the entire regime as it was conceived by the National Constituent Assembly. In another sense, there will be duties that by their nature are municipal - local - and cannot be removed from that sphere of competence to convert them into national services or interests, because doing so would imply dismantling the Municipality, or better yet, emptying it of constitutional content, and therefore, it is not possible beforehand</span><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman'; font-style:italic">&#xa0;</span><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman'; font-style:italic">to dictate the impassable limits of the local, but rather to uncover what does or does not correspond to the communal government, it must be extracted from the examination made in each specific case (...)". From the foregoing, the fact stands out that, by express will of our Fundamental Charter, a specific competence is assigned to local governments, an attribution that is also exclusive to them; that is, it is an original competence of the municipality and only through a law of nationalization or regionalization can it be displaced, totally or partially".</span></p><p style="margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt; text-indent:35.4pt; text-align:justify; line-height:150%; widows:2; orphans:2; font-size:14pt; background-color:#ffffff"><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman'">From what is stated in the cited jurisprudential excerpt, it is inferred that municipalities must ensure the well-being of the residents of their respective jurisdiction. By virtue of this, knowing of the issue caused by the operation of an irregular settlement, with an impact on the problem reported by the petitioner, the Municipalidad de San José should have carried out the corresponding acts to avoid the negative impact on the sphere of rights of the petitioner and other residents of Los Cipreses of Barrio México from the irregular establishment and development of the aforementioned hamlet. The municipal actions, moreover, should have included the corresponding coordination with any other institutions with competence in the matter. Indeed, the Chamber has already developed the municipal obligation to coordinate with other state institutions in order to attend to the "interests" and fully provide "local services". In the cited Judgment No. 1999-005445 of 2:30 p.m. on July 14, 1999, a criterion reiterated in Judgment No. 2020-010630 of 09:15 a.m. on June 12, 2020, the Chamber stated:</span></p><p style="margin:0pt 28.35pt; text-indent:35.45pt; text-align:justify; line-height:150%; widows:2; orphans:2; font-size:14pt; background-color:#ffffff"><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman'; font-style:italic">"(...) they refer to the obligation of coordination that must exist between local governments, decentralized institutions, and the Executive Branch, to carry out the functions that have been entrusted to them, which must be analyzed based on the very nature of municipal autonomy. It is by virtue of the provisions of Article 170 of the Constitution, that municipalities (local corporate entities) enjoy functional, administrative, and financial autonomy in the administration of local interests and services (Article 169 of the Political Constitution) (...) A conflict cannot, therefore, be created due to antagonism or protagonism between the subject matter that makes up the general purpose of 'local interests and services' and 'national' or 'state' public interests and services, intrinsically different from one another, but which in reality are called to coexist (....) Having defined the material competence of the municipality in a determined territorial jurisdiction, it is clear that there will be duties that by their nature are exclusively municipal, alongside others that can be considered national or state; for this reason, it is essential to define the form of co-participation of attributions that is inevitable, since the public capacity of the municipalities is local, and that of the State and other entities, national; whence it follows that the municipal territory is simultaneously state and institutional, to the extent that circumstances require. That is, municipalities can share their competencies with the Public Administration in general, a relationship that must develop under the terms defined in the law (Article 5 of the previous Municipal Code, Article 7 of the new Code), which establishes the obligation of 'coordination' between the municipalities and the public institutions that concur in the performance of their competencies, to avoid duplication of efforts and contradictions, above all, because only voluntary coordination is compatible with municipal autonomy, as it is its expression. In other terms, the municipality is called upon to enter into cooperative relationships with other public entities, and vice versa, given the concurrent or coincident nature - in many cases - of interests around a specific matter. In doctrine, coordination is defined based on the existence of several independent centers of action, each with its own duties and decision-making powers, and eventually discrepant; despite this, there must be a community of purposes by subject matter, but by concurrence, insofar as the object receiving the final results of the activity and the acts of each one is common". Thus, coordination is the ordering of the relationships between these various independent activities, which takes charge of that concurrence in the same object or entity, to make it useful for a global public plan, without suppressing the reciprocal independence of the agent subjects. Since there is no hierarchical relationship between decentralized institutions, nor between the State itself and the municipalities, it is not possible to impose certain conducts on the latter, whereby the essential inter-institutional 'concert' arises, in the strict sense, insofar as the autonomous and independent centers of action agree on that preventive and global scheme, in which each one plays a role with a view to a mission entrusted to the others".</span></p><p style="margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt; text-indent:35.4pt; text-align:justify; line-height:150%; widows:2; orphans:2; font-size:14pt; background-color:#ffffff"><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman'">Under this state of affairs and in accordance with the provisions of Article 50 of the Political Constitution, municipalities must exert themselves in protecting the environment.</span></p><p style="margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt; text-indent:35.4pt; text-align:justify; line-height:150%; widows:2; orphans:2; font-size:14pt; background-color:#ffffff"><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman'">Having set forth the foregoing considerations, what has been said is reiterated regarding the obligation of the Municipalidad de San José to execute and coordinate with competent institutions everything necessary to solve the problem reported by the appellant, which has not been definitively solved, largely because the cited municipal corporation has not carried out actions or inter-institutional coordination to regularize the operation of a settlement established and developed informally. Consequently, this amparo appeal is granted, in accordance with the provisions set forth in the operative part of this judgment. </span></p><p style="margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:6pt; text-indent:35.4pt; text-align:justify; line-height:150%; font-size:14pt; background-color:#ffffff"><span style="line-height:150%; font-family:'Times New Roman'; font-size:9.33pt; font-weight:bold; vertical-align:sub">V.- NOTE BY JUSTICE SALAZAR ALVARADO.</span><span style="line-height:150%; font-family:'Times New Roman'; font-size:9.33pt; vertical-align:sub"> In environmental matters, it is also the undersigned's opinion that if there has already been intervention by the Public Administration, I consider that its knowledge and resolution corresponds to the contentious-administrative jurisdiction. However, I do agree to hear the merits of the matter when other rights of the persons affected by the source of pollution are at stake, among them, health, quality of life, and the right to enjoy a healthy and pollution-free environment (Article 50 of the Political Constitution), as is the case here, in which the appellant alleges that he reported pollution problems due to the lack of collection and poor disposal of garbage in the community where he lives, without the Municipalidad de San José having provided a solution to said problem, in violation of the right to enjoy a healthy and ecologically balanced environment and a decent level of quality of life.</span></p><p style="margin-top:6pt; margin-bottom:0pt; text-indent:35.4pt; text-align:justify; line-height:150%; widows:2; orphans:2; font-size:14pt; background-color:#ffffff"><span style="line-height:150%; font-family:'Times New Roman'; font-size:9.33pt; font-weight:bold; vertical-align:sub">VI.- Partial dissenting vote regarding the operative part of this judgment by Justice Garro Vargas</span><span style="line-height:150%; font-family:'Times New Roman'; font-size:9.33pt; vertical-align:sub">.</span></p> While I agree with the majority of the Chamber that the appeal should be granted, I differ on where to place the enforcement phase of the matter, due to the lack of adequate mechanisms provided by the regulations governing this constitutional jurisdiction to monitor a judgment that involves highly complex technical aspects, as is the case here with correcting the development of the settlement that was established informally in the vicinity of Los Cipreses of Barrio México and thereby providing a definitive solution to the garbage problem afflicting that community, which affects the fundamental rights of the protected party. In contrast, the provisions of the Contentious-Administrative Procedure Code regarding enforcement (Article 155 and following) have evident advantages, such as the possibility of requesting schedules, imposing fines, establishing responsibilities, supervising compliance stages, etc. Therefore, in accordance with the provisions of Article 56 of the Constitutional Jurisdiction Law, I believe that the enforcement phase should be carried out before the Enforcement Area of the Contentious-Administrative and Civil Treasury Court, under the judgment enforcement rules of said Code.</span></p><p style="margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt; text-indent:35.4pt; text-align:justify; line-height:150%; widows:2; orphans:2; font-size:14pt; background-color:#ffffff"><span style="line-height:150%; font-family:'Times New Roman'; font-size:9.33pt; font-weight:bold; vertical-align:sub">VII.- DOCUMENTATION SUBMITTED TO THE CASE FILE</span><span style="line-height:150%; font-family:'Times New Roman'; font-size:9pt; vertical-align:sub">. </span><span style="line-height:150%; font-family:'Times New Roman'; font-size:9.33pt; vertical-align:sub">The parties are warned that if any document in paper form has been submitted, as well as objects or evidence contained on any additional electronic, computer, magnetic, optical, telematic device or one produced by new technologies, these must be retrieved from the office within a maximum period of 30 business days counted from the notification of this judgment. Otherwise, all material not retrieved within this period will be destroyed, pursuant to the provisions of the "Electronic Case File Regulation before the Judicial Branch" (Reglamento sobre Expediente Electrónico ante el Poder Judicial), approved by the Full Court in session No. 27-11 of August 22, 2011, Article XXVI and published in Judicial Bulletin number 19 of January 26, 2012, as well as the agreement approved by the Superior Council of the Judicial Branch, in session No. 43-12 held on May 3, 2012, Article LXXXI.</span></p><p style="margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt; text-align:center; line-height:21pt; background-color:#ffffff"><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman'; font-size:9.33pt; font-weight:bold; vertical-align:sub">Therefore:</span></p><p style="margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt; text-indent:35.4pt; text-align:justify; line-height:150%; widows:2; orphans:2; font-size:14pt; background-color:#ffffff"><span style="width:0.6pt; text-indent:0pt; display:inline-block">&#xa0;</span><span style="line-height:150%; font-family:'Times New Roman'; font-size:9.33pt; vertical-align:sub">The appeal is granted. Johnny Araya Monge, Marco Vinicio Corrales Xatruch, and Emperatriz Ordeñana Ayerdis, in their respective order, Mayor, Manager of Service Provision, and Head of the Department of Environmental Services, all of the Municipality of San José, or whoever holds such position, are ordered to carry out the corresponding acts and coordination so that, </span><span style="line-height:150%; font-family:'Times New Roman'; font-size:9.33pt; font-weight:bold; text-decoration:underline; vertical-align:sub">within a period of twelve months following the notification of this judgment</span><span style="line-height:150%; font-family:'Times New Roman'; font-size:9.33pt; vertical-align:sub">, the development of the settlement that was established informally in the vicinity of Los Cipreses of Barrio México is corrected and thereby a definitive solution is provided to the garbage problem afflicting that community, which affects the fundamental rights of the protected party. The foregoing, under warning that they could incur in the crime defined in Article 71 of the Constitutional Jurisdiction Law, which provides that imprisonment of three months to two years, or a fine of twenty to sixty days, shall be imposed on anyone who receives an order that must be complied with or enforced, issued in an amparo appeal (recurso de amparo), and does not comply with it or does not enforce it, provided the crime is not more severely punished. The Municipality of San José is ordered to pay the costs, damages, and losses caused by the facts that serve as the basis for this declaration, which shall be liquidated in the enforcement of the contentious-administrative judgment. Magistrate Salazar Alvarado sets forth a note. Magistrate Garro Vargas issues a dissenting vote regarding the enforcement of this judgment and, in accordance with Article 56 of the Constitutional Jurisdiction Law, orders that it must be carried out before the Enforcement Area of the Contentious-Administrative and Civil Treasury Court, under the enforcement rules established in Article 155 and following of the Contentious-Administrative Procedure Code. Likewise, she orders that a copy of the judgment be sent so that the enforcement procedures of this ruling may be initiated.</span></p> Notify.- <table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" style="width:100%; border-collapse:collapse"><tr><td style="padding-right:5.65pt; padding-left:5.65pt; vertical-align:top"><p style="margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt; text-align:center; line-height:19.5pt; background-color:#ffffff"><span style="font-size:8pt; vertical-align:sub; -aw-import:ignore">&#xa0;</span></p></td><td style="padding-right:5.65pt; padding-left:5.65pt; vertical-align:top"><p style="margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt; text-align:center; line-height:19.5pt; background-color:#ffffff"><img 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" width="162" height="74" alt="" style="-aw-left-pos:0pt; -aw-rel-hpos:column; -aw-rel-vpos:paragraph; -aw-top-pos:0pt; -aw-wrap-type:inline" /></p><p style="margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt; text-align:center; line-height:19.5pt; background-color:#ffffff"><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman'; font-size:7pt; vertical-align:sub">Fernando Castillo V.</span></p><p style="margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt; text-align:center; line-height:19.5pt; background-color:#ffffff"><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman'; font-size:7pt; vertical-align:sub">President</span></p></td><td style="padding-right:5.65pt; padding-left:5.65pt; vertical-align:top"><p style="margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt; text-align:center; line-height:19.5pt; background-color:#ffffff"><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman'; font-size:7pt; vertical-align:sub; -aw-import:ignore">&#xa0;</span></p></td></tr><tr><td style="padding-right:5.65pt; padding-left:5.65pt; vertical-align:top"><p style="margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt; text-align:center; line-height:19.5pt; background-color:#ffffff"><img src="data:image/png;base64,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" width="164" height="74" alt="" style="-aw-left-pos:0pt; -aw-rel-hpos:column; -aw-rel-vpos:paragraph; -aw-top-pos:0pt; -aw-wrap-type:inline" /></p><p style="margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt; text-align:center; line-height:19.5pt; background-color:#ffffff"><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman'; font-size:7pt; vertical-align:sub">Fernando Cruz C.</span></p></td><td style="padding-right:5.65pt; padding-left:5.65pt; vertical-align:top"><p style="margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt; text-align:center; line-height:19.5pt; background-color:#ffffff"><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman'; font-size:7pt; vertical-align:sub; -aw-import:ignore">&#xa0;</span></p></td><td style="padding-right:5.65pt; padding-left:5.65pt; vertical-align:top"><p style="margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt; text-align:center; line-height:19.5pt; background-color:#ffffff"><img 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 <p style="margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt; text-align:center; line-height:19.5pt; background-color:#ffffff"><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman'; font-size:7pt; vertical-align:sub">Luis Fdo.

| Salazar A. | | Jorge Araya G. | | Anamari Garro V. | | Aracelly Pacheco S. | Digitally Signed Document -- Verification Code -- *LDUEZ4LVQ0061*

20220007028594-25237629-1.rtf *220283280007CO* Res. Nº 2023002457 SALA CONSTITUCIONAL DE LA CORTE SUPREMA DE JUSTICIA. San José, a las nueve horas veinte minutos del tres de febrero de dos mil veintitres .

Recurso de amparo que se tramita en expediente número 22-028328-0007-CO, interpuesto por Nombre01, cédula de identidad CED01, contra MUNICIPALIDAD DE SAN JOSÉ.

Resultando:

1.- Por escrito presentado en la Secretaría de esta Sala el 13 de diciembre de 2022, el recurrente interpone recurso de amparo contra la Municipalidad de San José. Manifiesta que vive en Dirección01, calle 28, avenida 15, de la entrada principal del Liceo de San José, 100 metros norte. Manifiesta que los vecinos depositan la basura frente a su vivienda, provocando un alto grado de contaminación y malos olores. Indica que desde hace 7 años conversa con funcionarios de la Municipalidad de San José, sin que solucionen la problemática indicada. Detalla que el 30 de abril de 2021 envió un correo electrónico a la dirección ...01, en el que expuso: “Los vecinos del asentamiento Los cipreses (antiguo precario Nombre02), que son como 80 casas, nos ocasionan varios problemas que le detallo: 1. Los vecinos no respetan la regla de sacar sus basuras el día indicado, sino que en la noche anterior al día de recolección depositan sus bolsas de basura (y en algunos casos hasta abiertas), provocando olores insoportables así como la extensión de la basura en alrededores dado que los buzos se presentan a saquear la basura. 2. Si el día de recolección coincide con un día feriado, el problema se agudiza aún más y ni hablar cuando de los recolectores se van a huelga. 3. Últimamente las personas a quienes ellos han encargado de limpiar no lo están haciendo (aunado a que los recogedores no traen sus escobas para barrer), provocando se disperse por la calle y que la contaminación dejada por los desechos se altere con el sol, haciendo que los malos olores se aceleren, así como las visitas de las moscas en nuestra casa (…) Este es un problema que llevamos años solicitando a la Municipalidad de San José para que se corrija” y el 26 de octubre de 2021 envió un correo electrónico a las direcciones ...02, ...03, ...04, ...05 y ...06, en el que señaló: “Hace más de 6 años expuse ante ustedes, el problema de la basura con los vecinos de Los Cipreses en Dirección01, entre Dirección02, 100 metros la norte de la entrada principal del Liceo de San José, ya que la depositan a un costado y al frente de mi casa. Lo lamentable de esto es que diferentes departamentos de la Municipalidad tienen conocimiento de la problemática y a la fecha no han resuelto nada (…)”, entre otros correos que datan del 2015. Expresa que la situación aludida pone en riesgo su salud y la de su familia. Solicita la intervención de la Sala.

2.- Por resolución de las 17:09 horas de 16 de diciembre de 2022, se le previno al recurrente que indicara si había planteado gestión formal y por escrito ante la corporación municipal accionada, en relación con la problemática reclamada en el escrito de interposición.

3.- Por escritos presentados el 27 de diciembre de 2022, el recurrente cumplió con lo prevenido.

4.- Por cumplida la prevención y mediante resolución de las 08:53 horas de 13 de enero de 2022, se le dio curso a este proceso de amparo y se le solicitó informe al alcalde, a la gerente de Provisión de Servicios y al jefe del Departamento de Servicios Ambientales, todos de la Municipalidad de San José.

5.- Rinden informe, bajo solemnidad de juramento, Johnny Araya Monge, Marco Vinicio Corrales Xatruch y Emperatriz Ordeñana Ayerdis, por su orden, Alcalde, Gerente de Provisión de Servicios y Jefe del Departamento de Servicios Ambientales, todos la Municipalidad de San José. Manifiestan que se adhieren a lo dicho por la jefatura del Departamento de Servicios Ambientales de esa corporación municipal, la cual, mediante oficio DSA-022-2023 de 18 de enero de 2023, indicó: “(…) El día de hoy se realizó la visita al lugar para conocer la situación expuesta y se corrobora que efectivamente los vecinos de Los Cipreses en Dirección01 ubicados entre Dirección02 depositan ahí sus residuos, por lo tanto, se realizan las siguientes acciones: 1. En el punto uno se indica: que los vecinos no respetan el horario de recolección, se precederá a volantear a la comunidad informando del horario de servicio de recolección que son, únicamente, los días martes y viernes a partir de las 6 am. 2. En cuanto a los días feriados, que caigan martes o viernes, se le avisará a la población si se dará el servicio, los cuales son, generalmente: 1 de enero, jueves y viernes santo y 25 de diciembre. 3. En cuanto a que los funcionarios que no barren los residuos que quedan suelto, se les darán las herramientas necesarias para que realicen dicha limpieza, para esto se realizará una visita con el supervisor de la zona para atender puntualmente la necesidad. 4. En cuanto al servicio de barrido, se informa que, en la zona por parte de la sección de Limpieza Urbana, el servicio se da 3 días a la semana: martes, jueves y sábados. Además, en 2022, se realizó una campaña de recolección de residuos no tradicionales en Barrio México, recolectando 7 toneladas de residuos. 5. En cuanto a los correos que el señor Nombre01 indica se informa: que siempre se le brindo (sic) la atención a los mismos, y se realizaban las visitas al sitio para resolver la problemática que se ha presentado con los residuos, el servicio se le ha brindado los martes y viernes. El problema de la acumulación es debido al falte (sic) de cultura y educación de algunos vecinos, también tomar en cuenta que es un asentamiento informal que ha venido estableciéndose con el tiempo sin planificación en cuanto a calles de acceso formales, lo cual dificulta el ingreso de equipo de limpieza y recolección. En esas ocasiones, se realizaron visitas y conversación con los vecinos para establecer otro centro de disposición de residuos sin resultado aparente. Ante esta problemática se coordinará en el transcurso de la próxima semana, una reunión con el Comité de Vecinos para estudiar la posibilidad de establecer otro punto de acopio, en el cual se coloquen los residuos los dias (sic) establecidos por la administración, o valorar que entre un camión de 8 yardas, ya que los cables del tendido eléctrico están muy bajos y por la altura del camión se pueden romper, todo esto se estará valorando el día de la reunión con los vecinos (…)”. De otra parte, señala que la dirección de correo electrónico ...07 es el medio adecuado para la presentación de gestiones como las interpuestas por el recurrente. No obstante, considera que no se han lesionado los derechos fundamentales del tutelado. Solicita que se declare sin lugar el recurso.

6.- En los procedimientos seguidos se han observado las prescripciones legales.

Redacta el Magistrado Salazar Alvarado; y,

Considerando:

I.- OBJETO DEL RECURSO. El recurrente reclama que las autoridades de la Municipalidad de San José no han efectuado los actos correspondientes a efectos de atender y resolver un problema de contaminación provocado por el mal tratamiento de la basura.

II.- HECHOS PROBADOS. De importancia para la decisión de este asunto, se estiman como debidamente demostrados los siguientes hechos:

1. El 28 de julio y el 18 de agosto de 2015, el recurrente interpuso ante la Municipalidad de San José dos denuncias por el problema del mal manejo de la recolección y tratamiento de la basura en la comunidad de Los Cipreses de Barrio México (prueba aportada).

2. El 12 de octubre de 2016, mediante correo dirigido a la cuenta ...08, el recurrente reiteró ante la Municipalidad de San José las denuncias por el mal manejo de la basura (prueba aportada).

3. El 11 de agosto de 2017 y el 8 de noviembre de 2017, el recurrente interpuso nuevas denuncias ante la Municipalidad de San José por la misma problemática (prueba aportada).

4. En el año 2018, en fechas 25 de setiembre y 12 de octubre, mediante correos remitidos a las direcciones ...02, ...09, ...10 y ...11, el recurrente reiteró ante la Municipalidad de San José las denuncias por el mal manejo de la basura en la comunidad de Los Cipreses de Barrio México (prueba aportada) 5. Mediante correo electrónico de 30 de abril de 2021, mediante correo electrónico remitido a la cuenta ...12, el recurrente reitero ante la Municipalidad de San José las denuncias supra citadas (prueba aportada).

6. Mediante correo electrónico de 26 de octubre de 2021, dirigido a las cuentas ...13, ...14, ...15, ...16 y ...17, el recurrente reiteró ante la Municipalidad de San José las denuncias por problemas con la basura de la comunidad Los Cipreses en Barrio México (prueba aportada).

7. A la fecha de interposición de este recurso, sea, 13 de diciembre de 2022, la problemática denunciada por el recurrente se mantiene (informe y prueba aportada).

8. La resolución de curso dictada en este proceso fue notificada a las autoridades recurridas el 16 de enero de 2023 (actas de notificación).

9. Con ocasión de la notificación de la resolución de curso dictada en este proceso, el Departamento de Servicios Ambientales, en coordinación con la Sección de Servicios de Recolección, efectuaron una inspección y determinaron: a) los vecinos no respetan el horario de recolección de basura, por lo que se volanteará a efectos de informar que la recolección de residuos, tanto días hábiles como en días feriados; b) dotar de implementos de limpieza a los servidores municipales encargados de la limpieza de vías y que se encuentran destacados en la localidad del recurrente; c) se dispuso efectuar una campaña de recolección de residuos no tradicionales y que el servicio de limpieza de calles se debe realizar tres días a la semana, a saber, martes, jueves y sábados; d) los problemas con el tratamiento de la basura en la localidad donde vive el recurrente, en buena parte, obedece a los problemas ocasionados por un asentamiento informal que se ha establecido informalmente y sin planificación (informe y prueba aportada).

III.- SOBRE EL DERECHO A UN AMBIENTE SANO Y EQUILIBRADO. El artículo 50, de la Constitución Política, establece que, todas las personas tienen derecho a un ambiente sano y ecológicamente equilibrado, pues la protección a este derecho es una de los factores que garantizan el ejercicio del derecho a la salud contenido en el artículo 21, Constitucional. Igualmente, el artículo 89, de la Carta Magna, consagra el deber del Estado de mantener y proteger las riquezas naturales. En ese sentido, este Tribunal, por medio de la Sentencia N° 3705-93 de las 15:00 horas del 30 de julio de 1993, indicó que:

"(…)La calidad ambiental es un parámetro de esa calidad de vida; otros parámetros no menos importantes son salud, alimentación, trabajo, vivienda, educación, etc., pero más importante que ello es entender que si bien el hombre tiene el derecho de hacer uso del ambiente para su propio desarrollo, también tiene en deber de protegerlo y preservarlo para el uso de las generaciones presentes y futuras, lo cual no es tan novedoso, porque no es más que la traducción a esta materia del principio de la "lesión", ya consolidado en el derecho común, en virtud del cuál el legítimo ejercicio de un derecho tiene dos límites esenciales: Por un lado, los iguales derechos de los demás y, por el otro, el ejercicio racional y el disfrute útil del derecho mismo (…)" Así las cosas, aunado al derecho a un ambiente sano y al deber de cada persona de hacer un uso racional de los recursos naturales, se encuentra el deber del Estado de velar por su protección y conservación, así como la correlativa facultad de imponer las sanciones correspondientes por el incumplimiento de esos deberes. Es así como el artículo 50, de la Carta Fundamental, establece lo siguiente:

"(…) Toda persona tiene derecho a un ambiente sano y ecológicamente equilibrado. Por ello está legitimada para denunciar los actos que infrinjan ese derecho y para reclamar la reparación del daño causado.

El Estado garantizará, defenderá y preservará ese derecho. La ley determinará las responsabilidades y las sanciones correspondientes (…)".

De lo citado, se desprende claramente, que el Estado, a través de los órganos designados al efecto, es el encargado de garantizar a todas las personas, un ambiente sano y equilibrado, esto a través de los mecanismos que la ley pone a su disposición, con el fin de evitar daños irreversibles al medio ambiente y a la salud pública. Aunado a ello, debe promover las medidas necesarias, para que cada persona, disfrute de su derecho a la salud (ver, entre otras, Sentencia N° 2009-006462 de las 12:26 hrs. del 24 de abril del 2009 y Sentencia N° 2018-001089 de las 09:30 hrs. de 26 de enero de 2018).

IV.- SOBRE EL CASO CONCRETO. En el caso concreto, el recurrente alega afectación al derecho al ambiente sano y ecológicamente equilibrado con ocasión de problemas por la falta de recolección y mal tratamiento de la basura en la comunidad Los Cipreses de Barrio México. Al efecto, el tutelado ha venido denunciando dicha problemática desde el año 2015, cuando el 28 de julio de ese año interpuso la primera denuncia ante la Municipalidad de San José. Posterior a ello, reitero las denuncias en diversas fechas, tales como 12 de octubre de 2016, 25 de setiembre y 12 de octubre de 2018, 30 de abril de 2021 y 26 de octubre de 2021. No obstante, a la fecha en que el tutelado acudió a esta sede mediante este proceso sumario, sea, 13 de diciembre de 2022, el problema denunciado se mantiene. Aun cuando con ocasión de la notificación de la resolución de curso dictada en este proceso de amparo, las autoridades municipales efectuaron una inspección y determinaron algunos actos a seguir, lo cierto es que ello no alcanza para dar una solución integral al problema denunciado.

A mayor abundamiento, se tiene que con ocasión de este proceso de amparo, el Departamento de Servicios Ambientales, en coordinación con la Sección de Servicios de Recolección, ambas dependencias de la Municipalidad de San José, efectuaron una inspección y determinaron: a) los vecinos no respetan el horario de recolección de basura, por lo que se volanteará a efectos de informar que la recolección de residuos, tanto días hábiles como en días feriados; b) dotar de implementos de limpieza a los servidores municipales encargados de la limpieza de vías y que se encuentran destacados en la localidad del recurrente; c) se dispuso efectuar una campaña de recolección de residuos no tradicionales y que el servicio de limpieza de calles se debe realizar tres días a la semana, a saber, martes, jueves y sábados; d) los problemas con el tratamiento de la basura en la localidad donde vive el recurrente, en buena parte, obedece a los problemas ocasionados por un asentamiento informal que se ha establecido informalmente y sin planificación.

De lo dicho anteriormente, se extrae que aun cuando la municipalidad recurrida ha efectuado algunos actos a efectos de intentar remediar el problema denunciado, lo cierto es que no han sido suficientes, pues no se ha atacado la principal causa de los problemas con la basura en Los Cipreses de Barrio México, como lo es el establecimiento y desarrollo de un asentamiento informal. Ello ha sido de conocimiento de la corporación municipal recurrida y en su informe, las instancias de la misma acá recurridas aseguran que el principal problema es el crecimiento de ese asentamiento informal. No obstante, las autoridades municipales competentes no han efectuado los actos y coordinaciones inter institucionales para regularizar o ajustar a derecho lo propio del asentamiento de cita, es decir, para que dicho caserío se ajuste a la normativa legal, sea municipal o de cualesquiera otras materias, a efectos que además de remediar el problema de basura, se busquen soluciones, incluso, a otras situaciones de riesgo, tales como posibilidades de incendio, de seguridad entre otras, lo que evidentemente también sería de interés del recurrente. Así, con la falta de atención a la problemática ocasionada con el caserío que se ha establecido informalmente en las inmediaciones del lugar en que habita el amparado, se lesionan los derechos fundamentales de este.

Debe tenerse presente, que el artículo 169, de la Constitución Política, dispone que "La administración de los intereses y servicios locales en cada cantón, estará a cargo del Gobierno Municipal (...)". Esta norma ha sido desarrollada por el legislador ordinario, en atención a ello, el artículo 3, del Código Municipal, Ley N° 7794 de 30 de abril de 1998, dispone que: "El gobierno y la administración de los intereses y servicios cantonales estarán a cargo del gobierno municipal". En este sentido, esta Sala Constitucional -v.gr., Sentencia N° 1999-5445 de las 14:30 horas de 14 de julio de 1999 y Sentencia N° 2020-010630 de las 09:15 horas de 12 de junio de 2020- ha señalado lo siguiente:

“(…) "VI.- DE LAS ATRIBUCIONES DE LAS MUNICIPALIDADES EN RAZÓN DE LA MATERIA (CONCEPTO DE "LO LOCAL"). Por disposición constitucional expresa -artículo 169-, hay una asignación de funciones o atribuciones en favor de los gobiernos locales en razón de la materia a "lo local", sea, "la administración de los servicios e intereses" de la localidad a la que está circunscrita, para lo cual se la dota de autonomía (") De manera que sus potestades son genéricas, en tanto no hay una enumeración detallada de sus cometidos propios, sino una simple enunciación del ámbito de su competencia; pero no por ello no determinable, a lo que hizo referencia este Tribunal en sentencia número 6469-97, de las dieciséis horas veinte minutos del ocho de octubre de mil novecientos noventa y siete, en los siguientes términos:

" (...) lo local tiene tal connotación que definir sus alcances por el legislador o el juez, debe conducir al mantenimiento de la integridad de los intereses y servicios locales, de manera que ni siquiera podría el legislador dictar normativa que tienda a desmembrar el Municipio (elemento territorial), si no lo hace observando los procedimientos previamente establecidos en la Constitución Política; ni tampoco promulgar aquella que coloque a sus habitantes (población) en claras condiciones de inferioridad con relación al resto del país; ni la que afecte la esencia misma de lo local (gobierno), de manera que se convierta a la Corporación en un simple contenedor vacío del que subsista solo la nominación, pero desactivando todo el régimen tal y como fue concebido por la Asamblea Nacional Constituyente. En otro giro, habrá cometidos que por su naturaleza son municipales -locales- y no pueden ser substraídos de ese ámbito de competencia para convertirlos en servicios o intereses nacionales, porque hacerlo implicaría desarticular a la Municipalidad, o mejor aún, vaciarla de contenido constitucional, y por ello, no es posible de antemano dictar los límites infranqueables de lo local, sino que para desentrañar lo que corresponde o no al gobierno comunal, deberá extraerse del examen que se haga en cada caso concreto (...)". De lo anterior, resalta el hecho de que, por voluntad expresa de nuestra Carta Fundamental, se asigna una competencia específica a los gobiernos locales, atribución que además es exclusiva de éstos; es decir, se trata de una competencia originaria de la municipalidad y sólo mediante una ley de nacionalización o de regionalización es que puede ser desplazada, total o parcialmente".

De lo dicho en el extracto jurisprudencia de cita, se colige que las municipalidades deben velar por el bienestar de los munícipes de su respectiva circunscripción. En virtud de ello, a sabiendas de la problemática ocasionada por el funcionamiento de un asentamiento irregular, con incidencia en el problema denunciado por el tutelado, la Municipalidad de San José debió efectuar los actos correspondientes para evitar el impacto negativo en la esfera de derechos del tutelado y demás vecinos de Los Cipreses de Barrio México con el establecimiento y desarrollo irregular del caserío en mención. Las actuaciones municipales, además, debieron incluir las coordinaciones correspondientes con cualesquiera otras instituciones con competencia en la materia. En efecto, la Sala ya ha desarrollado la obligación municipal de coordinar con otras instituciones estatales en aras de atender los "intereses" y prestar cumplidamente los "servicios locales". En la citada Sentencia N° 1999-005445 de las 14:30 horas de 14 de julio de 1999, criterio reiterado en Sentencia N° 2020-010630 de las 09:15 horas de 12 de junio de 2020, la Sala manifestó:

"(...) se refieren a la obligación de coordinación que debe existir entre los gobiernos locales, las instituciones descentralizadas y el Poder Ejecutivo, para llevar a cabo las funciones que le han sido encomendadas, lo que debe ser analizado a partir de la naturaleza misma de la autonomía municipal. Es en virtud de lo dispuesto en el artículo 170 constitucional, que las municipalidades (entes corporativos locales) gozan de autonomía funcional, administrativa y financiera en la administración de los intereses y servicios locales (artículo 169 de la Constitución Política) (...) No puede, entonces, crearse un conflicto por antagonismo o protagonismo entre la materia que integra el fin general de "los intereses y servicios locales" de los intereses y servicios públicos "nacionales" o "estatales", intrínsecamente distintos unos de otros, pero que en realidad están llamados a coexistir (....) Definida la competencia material de la municipalidad en una circunscripción territorial determinada, queda claro que habrá cometidos que por su naturaleza son exclusivamente municipales, a la par de otros que pueden ser reputados nacionales o estatales; por ello es esencial definir la forma de cooparticipación de atribuciones que resulta inevitable, puesto que la capacidad pública de las municipalidades es local, y la del Estado y los demás entes, nacional; de donde resulta que el territorio municipal es simultáneamente estatal e institucional, en la medida en que lo exijan las circunstancias. Es decir, las municipalidades pueden compartir sus competencias con la Administración Pública en general, relación que debe desenvolverse en los términos como está definida en la ley (artículo 5 del Código Municipal anterior, artículo 7 del nuevo Código), que establece la obligación de "coordinación" entre la municipalidades y las instituciones públicas que concurran en el desempeño de sus competencias, para evitar duplicaciones de esfuerzos y contradicciones, sobre todo, porque sólo la coordinación voluntaria es compatible con la autonomía municipal por ser su expresión. En otros términos, la municipalidad está llamada a entrar en relaciones de cooperación con otros entes públicos, y viceversa, dado el carácter concurrente o coincidente -en muchos casos-, de intereses en torno a un asunto concreto. En la doctrina, la coordinación es definida a partir de la existencia de varios centros independientes de acción, cada uno con cometidos y poderes de decisión propios, y eventualmente discrepantes; pese a ello, debe existir una comunidad de fines por materia, pero por concurrencia, en cuanto sea común el objeto receptor de los resultados finales de la actividad y de los actos de cada uno". De manera que la coordinación es la ordenación de las relaciones entre estas diversas actividades independientes, que se hace cargo de esa concurrencia en un mismo objeto o entidad, para hacerla útil a un plan público global, sin suprimir la independencia recíproca de los sujetos agentes. Como no hay una relación de jerarquía de las instituciones descentralizadas, ni del Estado mismo en relación con las municipalidades, no es posible la imposición a éstas de determinadas conductas, con lo cual surge el imprescindible "concierto" interinstitucional, en sentido estricto, en cuanto los centros autónomos e independientes de acción se ponen de acuerdo sobre ese esquema preventivo y global, en el que cada uno cumple un papel con vista en una misión confiada a los otros".

Bajo tal estado de las cosas y de conformidad con lo dispuesto en el artículo 50, de la Constitución Política, las municipalidades deben prodigarse en protección del ambiente.

V.- NOTA DEL MAGISTRADO SALAZAR ALVARADO. En asuntos ambientales, es también criterio del suscrito, de que si ya ha habido intervención de la Administración Pública, considero que su conocimiento y resolución corresponde a la jurisdicción contenciosa administrativa. No obstante, sí entro a conocer el fondo del asunto cuando están de por medio otros derechos de las personas afectadas por el foco de contaminación, entre ellos, la salud, la calidad de vida y el derecho a gozar de un ambiente sano y libre de contaminación (artículo 50, de la Constitución Política), tal y como sucede en este caso, en el que la parte recurrente acusa que denunció problemas de contaminación por la falta de recolección y mal tratamiento de la basura en la comunidad en la que vive, sin que la Municipalidad de San José haya dado una solución a dicho problema, con violación del derecho a disfrutar de un ambiente sano y ecológicamente equilibrado y de un nivel digno de calidad de vida.

VI.- Voto salvado parcial respecto a la parte dispositiva de esta sentencia de la Magistrada Garro Vargas. Si bien coincido con la mayoría de la Sala en que el recurso se debe declarar con lugar, difiero sobre dónde residenciar la fase de ejecución del asunto, debido a la inexistencia de mecanismos adecuados previstos por la normativa que rige esta jurisdicción constitucional para dar seguimiento a una sentencia que reviste aspectos técnicos de gran complejidad, como es en este caso corregir el desarrollo del asentamiento que se estableció informalmente en las cercanías de Los Cipreses de Barrio México y con ello se de una solución definitiva al problema de basura que adolece esa comunidad, y que afecta los derechos fundamentales del amparado. En cambio, lo dispuesto por el Código Procesal Contencioso-Administrativo en materia de ejecución (artículo 155 y siguientes) tiene evidentes ventajas, como la posibilidad de pedir cronogramas, imponer multas, sentar responsabilidades, fiscalizar etapas de cumplimiento, etc. Por ello, de conformidad con lo dispuesto por el artículo 56 de la Ley de Jurisdicción Constitucional, estimo que la fase de ejecución debe realizarse ante el Área de Ejecución del Tribunal Contencioso Administrativo y Civil de Hacienda, bajo las reglas de ejecución de sentencia de dicho Código.

VII.- DOCUMENTACIÓN APORTADA AL EXPEDIENTE. Se previene a las partes que de haber aportado algún documento en papel, así como objetos o pruebas contenidas en algún dispositivo adicional de carácter electrónico, informático, magnético, óptico, telemático o producido por nuevas tecnologías, éstos deberán ser retirados del despacho en un plazo máximo de 30 días hábiles contados a partir de la notificación de esta sentencia. De lo contrario, será destruido todo aquel material que no sea retirado dentro de este plazo, según lo dispuesto en el "Reglamento sobre Expediente Electrónico ante el Poder Judicial", aprobado por la Corte Plena en sesión N° 27-11 del 22 de agosto del 2011, artículo XXVI y publicado en el Boletín Judicial número 19 del 26 de enero del 2012, así como en el acuerdo aprobado por el Consejo Superior del Poder Judicial, en la sesión N° 43-12 celebrada el 3 de mayo del 2012, artículo LXXXI.

Por tanto:

Se declara con lugar el recurso. Se ordena a Johnny Araya Monge, Marco Vinicio Corrales Xatruch y Emperatriz Ordeñana Ayerdis, por su orden, Alcalde, Gerente de Provisión de Servicios y Jefe del Departamento de Servicios Ambientales, todos la Municipalidad de San José, o a quienes ejerzan tal cargo, ejecutar los actos y coordinaciones correspondientes para que, dentro del plazo doce meses posteriores a la notificación de esta sentencia, se corrija el desarrollo del asentamiento que se estableció informalmente en las cercanías de Los Cipreses de Barrio México y con ello se de una solución definitiva al problema de basura que adolece esa comunidad, y que afecta los derechos fundamentales del amparado. Lo anterior, bajo apercibimiento de que podría incurrir en el delito tipificado en el artículo 71, de la Ley de la Jurisdicción Constitucional, el cual dispone que se impondrá prisión de tres meses a dos años, o de veinte a sesenta días multa, a quien recibiere una orden que deba cumplir o hacer cumplir, dictada en un recurso de amparo y no la cumpliere o no la hiciere cumplir, siempre que el delito no esté más gravemente penado. Se condena a la Municipalidad de San José al pago de las costas, daños y perjuicios causados con los hechos que sirven de base a esta declaratoria, los que se liquidarán en ejecución de sentencia de lo contencioso administrativo. El Magistrado Salazar Alvarado consigna nota. La Magistrada Garro Vargas salva el voto respecto a la ejecución de esta sentencia y, de conformidad con el artículo 56 de la Ley de la Jurisdicción Constitucional, dispone que debe realizarse ante el Área de Ejecución del Tribunal Contencioso Administrativo y Civil de Hacienda, bajo las reglas de ejecución, establecidos en los artículos 155 y siguientes del Código Procesal Contencioso Administrativo. Asimismo, ordena que se le remita copia de la sentencia para que se inicie los procedimientos de ejecución de este fallo. Notifíquese.- Fernando Castillo V.

Fernando Cruz C.

Paul Rueda L.

Luis Fdo. Salazar A.

Jorge Araya G.

Anamari Garro V.

Aracelly Pacheco S.

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