The simplification of permits provided for in the “More Housing” program, which exempts architectural projects of buildings from prior appraisal by the municipal services, is a concern for mayors and estate agents in the sector. The measure has prompted repeated warnings to the government, warning that it could deprive municipalities of a fundamental tool of city management.
A concern expressed in the advice approved last week by the National Association of Portuguese Municipalities (ANMP) that will be sent to the government, asking for “caution” in defining this measure. “The conditions must be maintained so that the municipalities are really the ones who manage their urban management and their services, and do not go over to the exclusive private sphere,” warned Luísa Salgueiro, socialist who presides over the ANMP, echoing the reparations made by several mayors.
This is the case of Hélder Sousa Silva, mayor of Mafra who is also vice president of the ANMP and leader of the social democratic mayors. While Hélder Sousa Silva agrees with the government’s stated goal of speeding up permitting procedures, he argues that another solution must be found – in the terms in which it is defined, the executive’s proposal will be a “cruel” impact on the management capacity planning of the municipalities and “clearly jeopardizes good planning” of the territory.
I speak from the practical experience of someone who has [pelouro do] urban planning for 12 years, in a medium-sized room, with about five thousand cases/year. More than 50% of these pathways are poorly instructed” and often fail to comply with the law in an area regulated by “an immense legal framework,” the mayor tells DN. Adding to this problem of “lack of quality” is “the lack of an overall view” of each individual project which, once the new legal framework is in place, will be able to proceed without a municipal permit, in other words without an assessment of the project’s urban framework.
The mayor of Mafra recalls that the legal regime for urbanization and construction has a specific article that makes it possible to stop projects that “have a negative impact on the environment and the landscape”. “We often invoke these articles to prevent the so-called ‘mamarrachos’ from advancing”, says Hélder Sousa Silva, who argues that this analysis should remain a prior competence of the municipalities and not an a posteriori verification. Especially since this will lead to an increase in lawsuits and probable – and long-lasting – legal confusions: “The municipality halts a work under construction, embargoes it, [os promotores] They have issued a court order and when the court finally decides, there will already be a five-storey building instead of three or four,” says the mayor of Mafra municipality, anticipating that this will be “one of the big problems”. of the new legal framework.
Fernando de Almeida Santos, president of the Order of Engineers, also claims that there must be “some verification” by the chambers regarding architectural projects, otherwise there will be an increase in lawsuits already with the works in progress. A question that does not arise in relation to the technical part of buildings, where there is already a “tacit” approval – “We are more than prepared for this kind of situation”. The President of the Engineers also underlined the new measure providing for sanctions in case of delays by public services in issuing administrative permits, which could prove to be “complex” insofar as it could lead to the temptation to abandon processes point “to gain profit”. time” and avoid penalties for exceeding legal decision periods.
Paulo Ferrero, president of the Associação Fórum Cidadania LX, dedicated to the defense of heritage – which has devoted much of its action to protesting “urban accidents”, especially in the capital – is also not positive about the change proposed by the government. A “total deregulation”, he tells DN, which foresees serious consequences “in terms of aesthetics, the volume of the buildings, the heights”. Problems that a posteriori verification will not solve: “In Lisbon, I remember only one case where there was a violation of the rules, with the construction of an additional floor, and the municipality managed to have it demolished. There may have been others, but I can’t remember,” says Paulo Ferrero, who also underlines that the new law will be a “revolution” in municipal services – “What are they going to do with the technicians?”.
The government’s proposal, still in a preliminary version and which was in public consultation until last Friday, in this case translates into a request for legislative authorization to parliament, whereby the government proposes to change urban operations, provide for the legal regime of urbanization and building. The Executive intends to “modify the advance control procedure applied to urban construction operations for advance communication” and “define that the approval of the architectural project and the valuation of specialized projects are based on the terms of responsibility of the authors of the projects which determines the preliminary injunction of the proceedings”. This new legal framework does not include urbanization works and allotment operations, which are still “licensable by the city council”.
The future government diploma will also define “a regime of joint liability between project authors and executive entities” and strengthen “the responsibility of designers and executive entities through the creation of a sanctions regime.”
Source: DN
