The Detailed Plan for Terras de Verdelago, which covers a tourist development to be installed between Altura and Praia Verde, in the municipality of Castro Marim, will be revised in order to have a hotel… more discreet.
Who guaranteed it to Sul Informação it was Filomena Sintra, deputy mayor of Castro Marim, who explained the reason why the Castro Marim municipality decided to change the Plan of Detail for the Lands of Verdelago and sign, this week, the contract for planning this change.
«The development has already been approved 20 years ago and permits have been issued and raised since 2010. But the corporate structure changed and launched an international competition for ideas to make an alteration to the hotel's project. And the idea, now, is to do something much less intrusive, much more adjusted to the landscape and the excavation that has already been done», framed the mayor from Castromarinense.
The new project brings “a significant improvement for all”, so the Chamber considered that “it would be worth following this longer path, through the modification of the Detailed Plan”.
"As this was a significant change in the structure of the hotel, the way it was presented, we thought it would be more transparent and with less doubts to change the Detailed Plan, rather than adjust the interpretation of the existing plan - because the The Chamber has autonomy to license a construction within the plan», said Filomena Sintra.
As for the changes that were made to the original project, which foresaw the creation of a five-star hotel, a tourist village, a trade and services area and an 18-hole golf course, they are aimed at improving the environment of the hotel in the landscape.
The number of rooms will be distributed over an infrastructure that is much more integrated into the landscape, as the previous project had a 15-meter threshold.
The new proposal foresees a maximum level «at the level of the Praia Verde road and that the building develops in the landscape, but downwards, in an area that is already excavated».
On the other hand, "they relocated the areas of apartment construction, which were previously closer to the sea and are now going to retreat."
This is, admits the PSD mayor, an unusual practice. “The community, society and institutions are not used to these changes being to advocate less intrusive solutions. It's usually the other way around (laughs)».
The deputy mayor of Castro Marim also recalled that "measures to minimize environmental impact have already been published in Diário da República for more than ten years" and that "all measures to safeguard both natural and historical heritage , are covered».
"I believe that everyone, even the most sensitive to heritage and the environment, will review this change," he said.
In a press release, the Chamber of Castro Marim reveals that, although there are changes to the project, "the total urban parameters will not be changed, namely the values referring to the area of implementation, construction, waterproofing, building height or number of beds" .
On the other hand, he adds that the Verdelago development has «an intervention area of 955.520m2 (95,552 ha), includes a hotel, a tourist village and a sports/leisure area, in an already urbanized space, with only a few remaining steps to complete. to the placement of the finishing of the lanes and sidewalks'.
«The Verdelago project is a very important investment for Castro Marim, contributing to strengthen the council's development strategy and asserting itself, from the point of view of public interest, as a structuring enterprise in the macroeconomic development of the municipality and the region». considers the Chamber of Castro Marim.
The project to amend the Detailed Plan should be submitted for approval by the Municipal Assembly of Castro Marim by the end of 2019. The construction of the hotel and the tourist development should start "in mid-2020".
The intention to create the Verdelago development is more than 30 years old and the start of its construction was even announced for 2011.
Before that, there was an unsuccessful attempt to move forward with a venture by the land's first owners, a group of Finnish investors, in the 80s/90s.
After a visit to the bank, the land ended up in the hands of the real estate company Inland, owned by Luís Filipe Vieira, president of SAD do Benfica, which saw the project classified as a Project of National Interest, in 2006.
The project should have moved forward in 2011, but the economic crisis dictated that it did not go beyond paper.
Now, the project is in the hands of Verdelago Sociedade Imobiliária, which is held, in its vast majority (75%) by an investment fund.
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