The Deputy Minister of Territorial Cohesion assured this Tuesday, in parliament, that it will not be possible to build “in the middle of fields or forests”, given the possibility of reclassifying rustic soils into urban ones, and that the aim is to consolidate urban areas.
“It will not be possible to build houses in the middle of fields or forests. The new law expressly requires that the consolidation and coherence of the urbanization to be developed with the existing urban area be ensured. The objective is to consolidate the urban fabric, fill urban voids or expand it in a coherent way. There can be no dispersion or ghettoization”, stated Manuel Castro Almeida.
The government official was speaking at a hearing within the scope of the parliamentary assessment of what changes the Legal Regime of Territorial Management Instruments (RJIGT), published on December 30, and added that, “in any case, infrastructure and equipment must exist or be guaranteed collective use”.
“It is also required that the reclassification for urban land is compatible with the local housing strategy”, he pointed out.
The minister refused to “build arbitrarily” and “any soil that could be used to build housing”, as “soil with agricultural potential (class A and B) cannot be used” and “nor can soil from listed areas should be used”, for example, in the Natura network.
According to Castro Almeida, it is also not yet possible to build in “dangerous areas, in areas covered by special coastal programs, in areas at risk of flooding, in hydro-agricultural developments, in maritime coastal protection strips, beaches, dunes, banks of watercourses of lakes, lagoons and reservoirs, areas threatened by the sea and areas threatened by floods”.
“In all of these areas, the diploma prohibits construction. Furthermore, in other areas where it is permitted, there must be a well-founded technical opinion from municipal departments or another contracted entity with technical competence to do so,” he said.
BE, PCP, Livre and PAN requested parliamentary assessment of the diploma, with a view to its revocation, but the PS has already said that it only intends to change the document.
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