Lagos City Council decided, at its first meeting in June, to approve the final version of the Lagos Urbanization Plan Proposal, a document that already includes the consideration of the results of the public discussion. The PU is now going to be approved by the Municipal Assembly.
Júlio Barroso, president of the municipality, told journalists last week, during the signing of the protocol with the Sonae Group, that the new Municipal Master Plan for Lagos would also be «within two or three months».
The Lagos PDM has been suspended for almost 20 years, since in 1994 the court declared one of its clauses illegal. The situation has created problems for the council, but now, finally, it seems that the process will come to an end.
«We will have a new and most modern PDM in the country within two or three months», announced Júlio Barroso.
«Since the previous PDM fell, we were forced to incorporate [the new concepts] and not just resume the previous PDM», which was based on studies from the 80s. «We resumed, undoing the error [which led to the declaration of illegality of a clause], but then we incorporated all the legislative evolution, the territorial achievements of projects, the ways, the equipment” and even “the advances and setbacks of Protal”, explained the mayor. Basically, what has been done is «adapt the old PDM of the 80s to the current reality».
«What was supposed to be a resumption of the old PDM, with all the incorporations and alterations, has now resulted in a new PDM, of a new generation», guaranteed Júlio Barroso.
Urbanization Plan incorporates suggestions from the public
The approval of the Lagos Urbanization Plan, presented by the City Council as an “important instrument for planning and spatial planning”, closes the phase of public discussion, which took place at the end of last year, between 14 November and 15 December.
During this period, citizens had the opportunity to participate more actively and directly in the planning process, by consulting all the information relating to the Plan and submitting suggestions, observations and also complaints.
The municipality adds that, during the process of public discussion, 134 participations were received (public and private), including a petition with 232 signatures, having been «all technically analyzed by the work team, resulting in some cases in the rectification of the initial proposal of the Flat".
The final version of the Lagos Urbanization Plan and the respective Environmental Report, approved at this Chamber meeting, will now be presented and submitted to the Lagos Municipal Assembly, for approval and subsequent publication in the Diário da República.
Complementary Information:
The elaboration and approval of territorial management instruments are subject to a long and complex process that results from the obligation to gather the opinion of a significant number of entities and the need to agree on the respective positions.
The Lagos Urbanization Plan was not alien to this process, which is why it is worth recalling the last stages to which it was subjected.
FRAMEWORK
♦ Following the approval of the Lagos UP Plan Proposal at the Chamber Meeting of 28 January 2009, it was sent to the Algarve Regional Coordination and Development Commission – CCDRA for the purposes of a Services Conference, which had place on March 17, 2009.
♦ Of the opinions issued (mostly favorable or conditioned favourable), only two were unfavorable, namely, that of the Administration of the Hydrographic Region of the Algarve, IP and that of the Institute for the Management of Architectural and Archaeological Heritage, IP., with whom they were carried out the respective conciliation meetings, both on April 3, 2009.
♦ Despite having issued a conditioned favorable opinion, on the same day of the Services Conference, a consultation meeting was held with the Regional Directorate of Agriculture and Fisheries of the Algarve, in which the issues raised by this Entity were immediately clarified.
♦ It should be noted that, despite the consultation meetings held with the ARH and IGESPAR, the resolution of matters relating to these themes was quite complex and time-consuming, reason why the Plan Proposal was reformulated in accordance with the aforementioned opinions and meetings, had only been approved at the Chamber Meeting of 21/07/2010.
♦ As a result, it was sent to the Algarve Regional Coordination and Development Commission for the purposes of consultation and issuance of a new opinion, which was only received on 27/12/2010, its content being substantiated by the indication that some points of the Proposal should be changed, or alternatively, a justification should be presented for the non-necessity of carrying out the mentioned changes.
♦ Regarding the Administration of the Hydrographic Region of Algarve, IP, a copy of the reformulated Proposal was also sent, accompanied by a set of studies requested by the Entity itself, with its opinion, received on 30/03/2011, plus another time, in the sense of deepening some other studies.
♦ The Lagos PU Plan Proposal was thus reformulated again following these latest opinions, subject to the appreciation and approval of the City Council at its meeting of 03/08/2011 and sent to the aforementioned Entities on 05/08/2011.
♦ On 13/09/2011, the opinion of the Administration of the Hydrographic Region of the Algarve was received, which is favorable, as long as the issues raised in it were taken into account, and on 29/09/2011 the opinion of the CCDRA was received, in identical sense.
♦ The resulting Plan Proposal was present at the 19/10/2011 Chamber Meeting, when the opening of the Public Discussion period was approved and deliberated, which ended up taking place between November 14th and December 15th.
♦ The final version of the Proposed Revision of the Lagos Urbanization Plan and the respective Weighting Report of the results of the Public Discussion are taken to the Council Meeting on June 06, 2012 with a view to its acceptance. Subsequently, it will be submitted for approval by the Municipal Assembly of Lagos.
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