The Loulé City Council decided, at its last meeting, to propose to the Municipal Assembly the recognition of the municipal interest of the Vale do Freixo, Golf & Country Estate project, as a structuring project, and also to refer the process to CCDR-Algarve, which chairs the PROT-Algarve Observatory, with a view to recognizing the regional interest of this undertaking.
The project to be installed in a large part of Quinta do Freixo, in the interior parish of Benafim, foresees the creation of 7976 jobs, in the construction phase, and 1072 jobs, in the exploration phase, guarantees the municipality.
Government, in an order dated March 12 of this year and signed by three secretaries of State – for the Economy and Regional Development, Tourism and Environment and Spatial Planning – has already recognized the «relevant public interest of the enterprise (…) as a Center for “Type III” economic development, framed in the Type III NDE subcategory of national relevance for tourism activity».
Despite this recognition, which in basic terms can be said to classify the Vale do Freixo project as, using the old terminology, a PIN (Project of National Interest), based on the opinions of various entities, the dispatch determines some conditions. The area to be occupied by the resort, with about 380 hectares, occupies areas of the National Ecological and Agricultural Reserve (REN and RAN), as well as areas of the Natura Network and also of aquifer recharge.
The government order, in its recitals, invokes the need for "speed in administrative procedures", "in a particularly difficult situation with regard to attracting foreign investment, in which competition is exercised on a global scale".
Despite this, and interestingly, since this order is, in practice, the green light for the development of the project, the decision determines the need for «submission to an environmental impact assessment (EIA) procedure, in order to weigh the direct impacts resulting from the eventual implementation of the project, as well as indirect impacts and cumulative impacts with other undertakings in progress or approved for the surrounding area, which is considered the Serra Territorial Unit as defined in the PROT Algarve».
The project is developed in a property located in Quinta do Freixo, Parish of Benafim, with about 380 hectares, and foresees 1722 tourist beds and 129 930 square meters of construction. The project is promoted by Golfrei – Empreendimentos Turísticos SA, a company that is part of the international group IFA Hotels & Resorts, chaired by Sheikh Jassim Al-Bahar, and which in the Algarve is already responsible for Pine Cliffs Resort (in Albufeira). A situation that leads the three secretaries of State, in the text of the order, to consider that it is “an international reference group in the tourism sector with confirmed experience in the sector and already proven in the national territory, bringing to Portugal and the region, image and notoriety'.
The proposed urban land (83.19 hectares) will integrate green spaces for framing, buildable spaces for tourist accommodation uses (urban areas related to tourist villages, a hotel and a small hotel establishment articulated with the development's SPA) and buildable spaces for services and other non-tourist economic activities.
The development is fundamentally aimed at a high quality tourist market, in addition to other complementary non-tourist economic activities.
The urban proposal includes the provision of various facilities for the development, such as a congress centre, a SPA, sports and leisure areas, a golf school, a hotel training school, a temple for religious practice, commercial areas (a locate in the central square) of the main village and also centers for applied research, business incubation and non-tourist activities.
The Vale do Freixo project is, in the opinion of the City Council, «an important contribution to the economic, social and tourist development» of the municipality of Loulé.
«In addition to ensuring environmental sustainability, rebalancing the territory, promoting the development of inland areas, the qualification and diversification of tourism, reducing seasonality and fixing the population, this project will create 7976 jobs during the construction phase. , and 1072 jobs, in the exploration phase'.
The antecedents of this project date back to 2001, when the City Council of Loulé began the procedures related to the Tourism Aptitude Area (AAT) of Benafim, provided for in the PDM of Loulé in force, with a view to implementing a project/enterprise of tourist vocation.
According to municipal officials, «the Municipality of Loulé has been focusing on the development of the interior of the Municipality, aiming to sustain the depopulation and economic depletion of those municipality territories, as a result, namely, of the abandonment of the traditional agrarian and forestry activities by the a population transferred to urban centers or aged. For this purpose, it is necessary to economically dynamize these areas, to promote the rebalancing of the territory, ensuring its repopulation and population settlement, either through public investment, namely in the construction of infrastructure and equipment and in the social area, or in the capture of private investment, which promotes the creation of qualified employment in a perspective of sustainability».
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