The Loulé Council guaranteed this Thursday that, if the creation of a center for scientific and environmental tourism in the parish of Querença does not go forward, the municipality's services and technicians, who have been striving to make the process run, will not be blamed. as quickly as possible'.
The Loulé local government reacted to a news released yesterday in the print edition of the newspaper “Correio da Manhã”, which raised the possibility of an investment intention of 10 million euros being lost, due to bureaucracy. The project in question belongs to the «Arto Carpus Castelo Foundation», a Finnish non-profit organization that already promotes similar research centers in Finland and Russia, according to that newspaper.
In the case of Querença, the project is being led by landscape architect Fernando Pessoa, who guaranteed that the investment is at risk of being lost if the request for feasibility addressed to the municipality is not approved "by June".
From the Loulé Chamber comes a guarantee, through a press release, that everything has been done to move the project forward. The municipality assures that "it has manifested, from the beginning, its interest in this important investment for the Council to move forward as quickly as possible" and refused to allow the process to be filed with the Chamber in October last year, as reported in the news to which it reacted. , but “on December 20, 2013”.
It even presents the chronological evolution of the procedures that have already taken place, in this process of request for feasibility. "The process was filed on 20.12.2013 and, through a letter dated 10.01.2014, additional elements were requested, still within the scope of the preliminary injunction of the process (duration of the Chamber's response: 14 working days)", revealed the municipality.
This is followed by a new request for information ("9 days"), as the elements submitted by the prosecutor did not exactly respond to the request, a new request for elements "within the scope of the preliminary injunction of the process (duration of the Chamber's response: 3 working days) » and the scheduling of a meeting with the promoter, after the delivery of the last requested information, on March 10th.
The meeting took place on April 1st, with the presence of "elements from the applicant's design team", who were "informed about some of the steps in the process".
«Since this is prior information, the written and designed pieces must comply with the provisions of the legislation in force, and it is necessary, in the case of the hotel, an opinion from Turismo de Portugal», informed the Chamber of Loulé.
In addition, he warned of the need for the project to "comply with the PDM with regard to the number of floors and it has to justify that it is concentrated in 10 percent of the area" and for "the need to join the two rustic buildings". At the time, adds the municipality, "a draft of the contract necessary for the contracting of the transfer of beds, under article 88º – D of the PDM, was handed over, for the purposes of validation".
“So far, no new elements have been entered, nor have any comments been made on the draft contract. It should be noted that the designer said today that he intends to meet with the person in charge of services to deliver the reformulated project», revealed the Chamber.
“At no time did the municipal services constitute a bureaucratic obstacle for the progress of the process, on the contrary. The Urban Planning Department of this Municipality and its responsibles, as indicated by the President himself, endeavored to ensure that all steps were taken as quickly as possible, in order to streamline the process», he stressed.
What is certain is that, according to those responsible for the project, the complex to be built in the Fonte da Benémola area, which will include "laboratories, studios, libraries, 17 rooms and two suites, which will serve to accommodate researchers", may not go forward, for the approval times are not compatible with the timings from the Finnish investor Arto Takala, who was already involved in the Quinta da Ombria process, in land close to those where he intends to set up this research centre.
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