Fruit growers in Allen secured that Mayor Marcelo Román's total veto of Ordinance 075/2026 stood firm, which added some 400 hectares of irrigated rural land to the urban area. The regulation cannot enter into force.
Fruit producers in Allen, in the Alto Valle of Río Negro, managed to stop Ordinance 075/2026, which moved the urban boundary over some 400 hectares of Irrigated Rural Zone. The Federación de Productores de Fruta de Río Negro y Neuquén reported that Mayor Marcelo Román's "total veto" had been upheld and that, "as the legislative insistence did not succeed," the regulation "cannot enter into force."
The bill, approved by the Concejo Deliberante on October 8, amended the city's Plan Rector, approved by Ordinance 086 of 2016. As the Federación detailed, the Urbanization Zone was expanded by approximately 300 hectares, to which another 100 hectares earmarked for Highway Services were added, so the initiative sought to incorporate some 400 hectares of the Irrigated Rural Zone into new urban and service uses. The regulation also redefined the limits of the urban area, incorporated sectors linked to the corridors of national route 22 and provincial route 65, changed the rules on land set-asides in new subdivisions and eliminated the municipal 30% share of the betterment value generated by urban development action.
After approval, Román vetoed the ordinance in its entirety and returned the discussion to the Concejo Deliberante. That is where the producers' push began: the Federación, together with the Consorcio de Riego de Allen and the Cámara de Productores Agrícolas de Allen, submitted a letter dated October 14 asking council members not to insist on the enactment and stating its "Total Opposition" to the expansion of the urbanization zone and to "any other use that would reduce the surface area destined for the Irrigated Rural Zone." On Thursday, October 29, a group of producers attended the Concejo Deliberante and was received by all council members. The president of the Federación, Sebastián Hernández, summed up the position: "This project must not go through; without productive land we do not exist."
With the veto upheld, the organization celebrated the outcome: "We consider that this decision represents an important step in defending irrigated land and the productive heritage of our region." It also warned that urban expansion onto areas historically devoted to fruit growing puts at risk "an activity fundamental to the economy and the identity of the Alto Valle," and clarified that the demand "was never a political whim confined to a single town," but rather a long-standing position of producers in the face of changes in land use in the region.
The fruit growers stated that they do not oppose the city's growth, but that such developments should be directed toward the areas already authorized for that purpose by the current Plan Rector. They closed their statement with a core definition: "Defending the farms is defending the work of producers, the sources of employment and the economic development of the whole region."
