O new real estate project planned for Quinta da Rocha, next to the Ria de Alvor, in the municipality of Portimão, will be scrutinized in the Assembly of the Republic, in a hearing whose realization was unanimously approved yesterday by the Parliamentary Committee for the Environment, Energy and Spatial Planning.
The Left Block submitted an application for the hearing of the “Almargem” Association, the “A Rocha” Association, the ICNF Regional Director for the Algarve, the President of CCDR/Algarve and the Secretary of State for Nature Conservation, Forests and of Spatial Planning sabout this controversial project, a proposal that received the agreement of the members of the commission.
However, the PSD also submitted a request for a hearing to Isilda Gomes, president of the Chamber of Portimão (PS), which was equally approved by all parliamentary groups.
The hearing will take place "at the beginning of the next legislative session".
BE recalled, in a note sent to the newsrooms, that at the meeting of the Portimão Council on June 17 «a Prior Information Request (PIP) was approved by the Permanent Executive regarding the new real estate project for Quinta da Rocha, Ria de Alvor, which includes the construction of a 5-star rural hotel, nine country houses, agricultural support and a warehouse».
A decision that was contested at the time, both by the local structure of the Block and by the PSD.
For the blocistas, there are several reasons why the City Council should not have approved the project for Quinta da Rocha, by the Water View promoter.
Firstly, because there are still "two cases pending in the Administrative and Fiscal Court of Loulé, one dated February 6, 2018, which requires the challenge of the approval of ICNF and CCDR/Algarve Opinions, and another dated March 6 2020, which requires the challenge of the CCDR/Algarve Environmental Impact Statement».
For BE, the municipality should have "awaited court decisions, considering the precautionary principle".
Even because, say the blocists, «the city council itself, in the May 4, 2020 Information, is clear when it states that “it will be convenient to await the conclusion of the process in Court, to assess the validity of the Environmental Impact Statement”» .
«On the other hand, the positive opinions of the ICNF and the CCDR need to be fully explained, knowing that habitats recognized and protected by law were administratively eliminated. The promoter used unofficial maps, not homologated and not registered in the National Geographic Information Service, where protected habitats, of priority conservation that are recognized by the Portuguese State and by the European Union, were “erased”, adds the BE.
“Quinta da Rocha is presented only partially in the rear area of the Land Protection Zone, when 99,9% of the property is located in the Land Protection Zone, where new constructions and land waterproofing are not allowed”, he adds.
The same party emphasizes “the fact that the prosecutor has not yet complied with previous court decisions, such as the replacement of destroyed species and habitats. For the Left Block, as long as the prosecutor did not comply with the court's decisions, he could not proceed with constructions, occupation of land with earth moving, excavations and landfills».
Another «fundamental issue» has to do with «the absence in the project of a strip of public domain along the Ria de Alvor, which could lead to the creation of private beaches, which is unconstitutional in view of Portuguese law».
The PSD, on the other hand, in a reaction from its Portimão council structure, taken in the days after the meeting where the PIP was approved, spoke of the executive's "super-speed" and expressed "concern for a new demonstration of complete lack of direction and strategy of urban planning of the socialist executive».
For the Social Democrats, in view of the approved proposal, the only path “is an evident responsible and conscientious lead due to the extraordinary environmental zone in question and the lack of legal and strategic force of the Municipality”.
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