The construction of three hotels in the Ponta de João de Arens area, on the coast of the municipality of Portimão, is in public consultation until the 15th of March, but the deadline may be extended. O Citizens Group Against Construction in João de Arens he asked the Algarve's Regional Coordination and Development Commission (CCDR) for an extension for a further period of fifteen days, claiming that he was prevented from consulting documents, which are in the possession of the Portimão Chamber.
The group explains that "the consultation of a set of documents that are physically found in the Portimão Chamber was requested and which, in the opinion of the applicants, members of this group, are relevant for the preparation of participation in this public discussion".
However, they say, «twice, this consultation was denied to them», and a complaint was even presented to the municipal services and, «days later, to the Commission for Access to Administrative Documents, with due knowledge to CCDR Algarve , environmental impact assessment authority'.
"Due to the difficulty", the group continues, the CCDR was asked for "an extension of the deadline for an additional period of fifteen days".
For the group of citizens, "this attitude on the part of the Municipality of Portimão violates the principle of private participation in decisions that concern them and, therefore, does not take into account the principle of participatory management or administrative citizenship" .
For the contestants of this project, "this behavior, to maintain and affect the right to participate in an informed way, will result in the nullity of the acts that are practiced after this consultation, namely, but not exclusively, the Impact Statement Environmental to be issued by CCDR Algarve».
The group guarantees that "it will continue to fight for this project not to be approved", since it considers that "it collides with natural values that have legal protection, represents an urban error and, legally, is fatally wounded, something that, if not recognized by the CCDR Algarve, will certainly be by the Administrative Courts».
Despite this strong opposition, which has set social networks on fire, the subdivision in question is not exactly new. It is rather an "urban planning operation" that "aimed at implementing the provisions of the UOPG3 UP", provided for in the PDM. In other words, it intends to put into practice what was contained in the Urbanization Plan of the Operational Unit for Planning and Management of Traditional Hospitality, approved on January 14, 2008, by the Municipal Assembly of Portimão. And this UOPG3 UP had already received the environmental green light, in 2007, following the Environmental Assessment of 2007 and the respective Environmental Report, which received a favorable opinion from CCDR Algarve.
The allotment project is now being promoted by Top Building – Investimentos Imobiliários SA, a company to which the Portuguese businessman Miguel Pais do Amaral is linked.
According to Jornal de Negócios, Top Building assumes itself, in the public consultation, as a representative of the proponents, and the promoters are part of the Astronow company, whose partner is a Spanish hotel company. According to that publication, the prosecutors joined together, as they had separate lots in that area. Astronow, MI Estoril Invest, Areia Feliz, Top Building and Prainha are the owners covered in this subdivision.
But what then does this subdivision foresee, whose Environmental Impact Study (EIA) is under public consultation until the next 15th of March (if the deadline is not extended)? It foresees the construction of three hotel units, with a maximum of three floors, or 15 meters, with a total of 411 rooms. The proposal foresees that, in a total area of 460 thousand square meters, the three hotels occupy 11.500 m2.
The value of the investment in the construction of the three hotels should reach between 40 and 45 million euros, not counting the construction of the necessary infrastructure.
According to the Non-Technical Summary of the EIA, the three lots «are intended for the implementation of quality hotel units».
In the three lots, the descriptive and justification of the subdivision project refers, in all of them, there is a portion of land that is of 'great importance from an environmental and landscape point of view, adjacent to the natural space of cliffs and cliffs, of water lines and wetlands, asserting itself as an important complementary area of protection».
Therefore, according to the same document, these areas will be subject to «landscape protection and enhancement, preservation of cliffs and cliffs (as well as their necessary consolidation), water lines and wetlands, as well as the treatment of spaces for a better public enjoyment which, in this case, will be guaranteed by installing pedestrian paths and viewpoints'.
The EIA Non-Technical Summary estimates that 400 direct jobs will be created by the three hotels and 600 indirect jobs, which is considered one of the main positive impacts of the project.
Also the implementation of the Planning Unit, complying with what is defined in the territorial management instruments, «reinforcing the confidence of social and economic agents and consolidating the strategy of strengthening the tourist activity» and «opportunity for planning the accesses on the coastal strip, given to the domain public, enabling the control of erosion caused by trampling and the opening of multiple trails in the area close to the cliffs», are seen as positive impacts.
The main negative impacts, on the other hand, include "increased water erosion from the small water lines that cross the subdivision area, also due to the increase in surface runoff caused by the waterproofing", the "visual impact of the buildings of the planned tourist developments" and the "impact of a protected plant species, endemic to the Algarve – the algarvian linaria, in an area of 2,8 hectares'.
This last impact was, in fact, one of the reasons which recently made a tourist allotment on the cliffs of the Benagil and Praia da Marinha, in the neighboring municipality of Lagoa, unfeasible.
In order to minimize the impacts of the subdivision, the EIA proposes the creation of “Micro Botanical Reserves”, preserving an area of 3,6 hectares of algarvian linaria, the elaboration of erosion control projects for the torrential water lines downstream of the subdivision and the archaeological follow-up of the works. In the latter case, this is really an obligation that derives from the law.
Considering these measures, the EIA says that "no negative impacts were identified that make it unfeasible or require changes to the subdivision project". The contestants have a different opinion. And soon the position of CCDR Algarve will be seen.
To contest the project, the Citizens' Group against Construction in João de Arens has scheduled, for next Saturday, a “Day of Awareness for the Preservation of João de Arens”.
With the motto "The Last Window to the Sea", the action starts at 9:15 am, with guided meditation (and a meeting point at the nearby Praia do Alemão, at 9:00 am), followed by a guided walk through the cliffs of João de Arens. by a biologist (meeting point: Praia do Vau, at 9:30 am), paddle ride or open surf class. In the afternoon, there will be an open Crossfit class at Praia do Vau.
The day of protest ends with a «sunset with various musicians from the city», at the Olhaq2 bar, in Largo da Câmara de Portimão, from 17:30 pm to 20:30 pm. The organization promises that there will be people there "for the public's clarification and to help all those interested in participating online in a complaint to the CCDR, on the computers that we will have available".
Click here to participate in the public consultation (so far, there have been 53 participations in this process)
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