metropolitan spatial plans typically aim to provide a medium to longterm vision for development which is however not always aligned with the timeframe of other plans at municipal or national levels there is also a risk that such medium to longterm plans may be considered too long to imply anything meaningful or realistically feasible for shortterm political mandates however it eventually turned into gated communities called fraccionamientos whose development and public sendee provision mainly take place outside the control of public authorities and contribute to increasing socioeconomic inequalities within the metropolitan region