The citizenship group "The last window to the sea" will organize, on the 15th of August, a collection of signatures and awareness-raising activities on the beaches of Rocha and Alemão, inviting all those who believe in this cause to walk together along the sand. in collecting signatures.
This group of citizens intends to request, to the Municipal Assembly of Portimão, the request for revocation or suspension of the Urbanization Plan for UP3 João de Arens.
In May of this year, «the union of active local citizenship achieved, with the support of the national population, the resident foreign community and the involvement of the scientific community, more than 2000 signatures that resulted in an Unfavorable Environmental Impact statement to the project that intended the construction of three hotel establishments in the latter and emblematic green area of the coastal seafront of the municipality of Portimão», stresses the movement.
«The Urbanization Plan is the base of the pyramid that allows more projects, like the one eliminated in May, to re-emerge. It doesn't make sense that every year you have to mobilize the community and collect signatures. When we ask for the revocation or suspension of the current plan, we cut the evil in the bud», defends Lucinda Caetano, urban architect, member of the citizenship group.
«The foundations of the CCDR opinion that led to the hotel construction project in João de Arens made it very clear the impossibility of complying with the existing plan without harming the environment. We are not against having a plan. We are not against the owners. We do not revoke owners' rights, we revoke plan rights, harmful to the environment. We want a plan that safeguards the high landscape and ecological value of João d'Arens, that guarantees the protection of the existing natural values and the identity of the place», adds the architect.
“We don't want more constructions on top of cliffs. We don't want constructions less than 500 meters from the coast. We don't want constructions that only happened via the creation of exception rules. We do not want to add urban pressure to a place that deserves to be preserved as a natural landscape, in addition to the danger that would be to build on rocks that are dissolving. And any construction that takes place there will violate the (new) territorial planning strategy, so this new public petition makes perfect sense”, adds Rui Amores, lawyer, also a member of the group “The last window to the sea”.
The meeting point for the action will be in the Praia da Rocha Sports Area, at 9:00 am.
To those who join this initiative, the citizenship group “The last window to the sea” will offer a T-shirt so that everyone can “wear the shirt” for João de Arens and for the preservation of the Environment.
«The action “I Love João d'Arens” wants to involve tourists who visit us in the preservation of this place, because in addition to the residents, they will also be the main beneficiaries of the survival of that green spot that further beautifies the Algarve coastline», he adds the group.
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