What is Vale de Santo António anyway? Why is its Urbanization Plan so important? And why does it represent the biggest urban planning operation in the city of Lisbon since Expo'98? In this article, we explain and uncomplicate the issue.
Anyone who takes a slight detour from Avenida General Roçadas in Sapadores, one of the main arteries in the neighborhood and in the parish of Penha de França, may find themselves at the "end of town". It can be a kind of interruption of Lisbon, where the urban and cosmopolitan space is suspended by a large wasteland, with no buildings, nothing. The same could happen to anyone coming from Praça Paiva Couceiro, one of the most central squares in Penha, and heading down Avenida Mouzinho de Albuquerque towards the river.
Between General Roçadas and Mouzinho de Albuquerque, there is a piece of Lisbon that has been waiting for decades for decisions to be made. Known among the old-timers as Dark Valley but more recently baptized as Vale de Santo AntónioThe territory is awaiting a new Urbanization Plan. The plan in force since 2012 is out of date and a proposal for an amendment has been awaited since 2017. It began to be drawn up but was not completed - neither within the timeframe set in 2017, nor within the timeframe set in 2020. So it's almost back to square one. There is now a new proposal to amend the Plan already approved by the Lisbon City Council, which still has to go through the Lisbon and Tagus Valley Regional Coordination and Development Commission (CCDR-LVT) and a still complex and bureaucratic procedure before it finally comes into force.
This new proposal continues to provide for affordable housing, an urban park and various public facilitiespromising complete the cityand give Vale de Santo António the urbanity and modernity it deserves. But, after all, what is the history of Vale de Santo António? And why is this Urbanization Plan so important, why does it represent the biggest urban planning operation in Lisbon since Expo'98?
In this article, we explain and uncomplicate the issue.
Point of arrival... and departure
It's May 31, 2023. Lisbon City Council public meeting. The "restarting the procedure to amend the Vale de Santo António Urbanization Plan". In other words, the municipality has new proposal to urbanize Vale de Santo António and began the administrative process of amending the Urbanization Plan approved in 2012 and in force since then.
The new Plan - or, rather, the proposed amendment to the current Plan - was approved by a majority, with the favorable votes of the councillors in charge of Carlos Moedas' Executive (i.e. the coalition councillors). New Times) and also the councillors without portfolio (opposition). PS, Livre and PCP - who negotiated with the Councillor for Urban Planning, Joana Almeida (independent, New Times) - voted in favor; only BE and CPL (Cidadãos Por Lisboa) abstained. Now, it's on the side of Lisbon and Tagus Valley Regional Coordination and Development Commission (CCDR-LVT) the analysis of the various parts of the Plan, which will then have to go through a public discussion and final approval by the Municipal Assembly. Only with the new Urbanization Plan published and approved will it be possible to start transforming Vale de Santo António into something concrete (with construction work).
How to make an Urbanization Plan
Step 1 | Deliberation - the City Council, at a public meeting of its Executive (i.e. a meeting open to the public), decides that it is going to carry out the Urbanization Plan or a proposed amendment to the current Plan. In this decision, the terms of reference are approved, a document in which the City Council establishes the general lines of the Plan;
Step 2 | Elaboration - the City Council's Technical Services draw up the Urbanization Plan, following the terms of reference;
Step 3 | CCDR - the Plan proposal is sent to the corresponding Regional Coordination and Development Commission (CCDR), which makes an assessment of it, bringing together the entities that seem relevant to the scope and location of the Plan, issuing an opinion that it sends to the City Council;
Step 4 | Concertation - is an optional step that falls to the City Council and consists of bringing together the entities that, together with the CCDR, have disagreed with the Urbanization Plan, seeking to reach consensus with them;
Step 5 | Public Discussion - At this stage, all the documentation for the Urbanization Plan is made available to the population for contributions. The public discussion period must last at least 20 days;
Step 6 | Final approval - the City Council, once again in a public meeting of its Executive, approves the final version of the Urbanization Plan or the proposed amendment to the Urbanization Plan. It sends the documents to the Municipal Assembly. Once the Plan has been approved by this body, it is published and comes into force.
In the case of Vale de Santo António, we are on the third step.
The conclusion of this amendment to the Vale de Santo António Urbanization Plan will be an important step towards the realization of an urban operation that is considered to be the largest in the city of Lisbon since Expo'98. But we'll get to that. For now, let's take a step back in time. Because in order to better understand this whole story of the Vale de Santo António, we need to tell the story from the beginning. We need to go back to long before the great world exhibition of the late 1990s; we need to go back to the time when the now popularized Vale de Santo António was better known as Dark Valley.
It was around the 1970s that Lisbon Public Urbanization Company (EPUL)The project, which has since been extinguished, called for the construction of six towers and 50 small collective buildings - a project that was never fully realized and which has been updated several times since then. Landscape architect Gonçalo Ribeiro Telles also drew up a plan for this valley, with housing, an urban park, leisure and sports areas, meadows, the watercourse of the stream on the surface, and pedestrian and cycling routes.
Since the 1970s, Lisbon has changed a lot. And so has the world. And these changes have brought new ways of looking at and thinking about the city and cities. Thus, since the urbanization of Vale de Santo António (or Vale Escuro) was never completely completed, it was necessary to draw up a new Urbanization Plan. Thus, it was in 2011 that the then Councillor for Urban Planning, Manuel Salgado, presented the first contemporary proposal for the Urbanization Plan, which is the plan that has still been in force since 2012. In 2017With the change in Lisbon City Council's housing policy (EPUL was abolished and the Affordable Rent Program was launched), it was decided to revise the Plan (Salgado was still Councillor for Urban Planning).
The process - which, as we've seen before, is complex - was never completed, and in 2020 it was started again with roughly the same proposed amendment as three years ago. But again, the procedure stalled. And so we arrive in 2023, with a new proposal for an amendment that builds on the work done before and develops it further.
Chronology
1970s - The first Urbanization Plan for what was then known as Vale Escuro, which envisaged the construction of six towers and 50 small collective buildings by the now defunct Empresa Pública de Urbanização de Lisboa (EPUL);
2006 - the preparation of a "contemporary" urbanization plan for the Santo António Valley began, with the approval of the project's terms of reference (key guidelines) at a town hall meeting. The task still fell to EPUL, which was only abolished in 2012;
2011/12 - the Plan is concluded and eventually approved by the Municipal Assembly; the process was long, involving the drafting of the Plan, the submission of the various documents to the CCDR-LVT, consultation meetings with relevant entities and a period of public discussion. It is the Plan that is currently in force, as we'll see below;
November 2017 - the Urbanization Plan begins to be altered to bring it into line with Lisbon City Council's new affordable housing policy, following the demise of EPUL and the launch of the Affordable Rent Program. This is how the revision of the documents began, with the approval of new terms of reference at a City Council meeting;
September 2020 - The revision of the Plan did not come to fruition, as the 270-day deadline set in 2017 for the conclusion of the revision procedure was exceeded (all things considered, it should have been concluded in 2018);
June 2021 - the process lapsed again. Although everything was ready, the new proposal was never sent to the CCDR-LVT, so the procedure was canceled. The PS says that the electoral timetable did not allow the review procedure to be concluded;
2022/23 - Lisbon City Council has once again started the procedure to revise the Vale de Santo António Urbanization Plan, building on the work carried out previously;
May 2023 - The proposal to amend the Vale de Santo António Urbanization Plan has been approved and the documents are now with the CCDR-LVT. A period of public discussion will follow, after which the new Urbanization Plan can come into force.
Next, we'll explain what's wrong with the Urbanization Plan in force (2011/12), why it was decided to change it in 2017 and 2020, and what's the proposed amendment now on the table.
Salgado and EPUL's plan
It was in January 2006 with Carmona Rodrigues (PSD), in his second (non-consecutive) term as Mayor of Lisbon, decided to start drawing up a new Urbanization Plan for the Santo António Valley. But it was later implemented with António Costa (PS) at the helm of the municipality after the mid-term elections in July 2007. The plan was drawn up by EPUL and eventually presented in 2011 by the then Councillor for Urban Planning, Manuel Salgado. It contemplated the reorganization of the road around Avenida Mouzinho de Albuquerque, the construction of public housing, the building of educational, social and sports facilities, the creation of car parking silos and the creation of an urban park.
Covering an area of approximately 48 hectares, the Urbanization Plan drawn up by EPUL, under Salgado's command, provided for the following:
- a reorganization of the road network around a main axis, Avenida Mouzinho de AlbuquerqueThe aim is to direct all through traffic and flow capacity to it, creating branches to other important arteries in that part of the city, such as Avenida Infante D. Henrique or Avenida Afonso III;
- a implementation "eventual" a streetcar line along the aforementioned avenueIt would also become a green, permeable area that would help give the axis a more urban character;
- establish a local road networkIn this more local network, pedestrian traffic would be avoided, as would road access to housing, commerce and services, where pedestrian traffic could be more prevalent. In this more local network, crossing traffic would be avoided "for the benefit of urban quality, the environment and people's safety";
- a creation of a road tunnel between Avenida Mouzinho de Albuquerque, near the riverside area, and Avenida Almirante ReisRua de Angola;
- a construction of four car parking silos to make up for the current deficiencies in the area and also to meet the expected demand. The proposal was for 1,220 parking spaces on the northern slope, of which 580 in silo; and on the southern slope, 900 spaces on the public highway and 850 in silo; 350 spaces are planned along Avenida Mouzinho de Albuquerque;
- a regularization of some plotssince the urbanization proposal concerns "a terrain with a very rugged topography that has been accentuated by the deposition of rubble and the erosion of valleys that are no longer farmed and today serve as channels for the torrents that flow down the slopes";
- a installation of a large playing field for the Operário Football Club, of a sports pavilion with 500 bench seatsand the headquarters of two sports clubs in the area, as well as a multigenerational sports park;
- building a Kindergarten with six classroomsthe relocation of existing nursery school in a more favorable location, and the expansion of EB 2,3 Patrício dos Prazeres in conjunction with the new sports hall;
- a construction of a health center and a long-term care unitfrom a retirement home and day care centerand a cultural and recreational center;
- the creation of a comprehensive urban park "which includes the effective revitalization and environmental and landscape requalification of this area, accompanying the functional dynamics to be implemented, and promoting the possible and necessary connections". This urban park, which will have an area of approximately 68 thousand square meters, will be structured by the valley and will allow to have "an essentially permeable area, planted with shrub and tree species characteristic of the riparian gallery (mata ribeirinha), which functions as an integrating element of the new built volumes planned for the periphery";
- establishing a a green pedestrian and cycling corridor that runs along the whole of Avenida Mouzinho de Albuquerquewith "the creation of a landscaped central separator and the implementation of a new afforestation plan, using deciduous and large tree species that best adapt to the existing or future built volumes".
You can consult the documentation for this 2011/12 Plan (which is the one in force) here:
📁 Documents from 2011
The slow march from 2017 to 2020
In December 2012, the Lisbon City Council, then led by António Costa, approved the extinction of EPUL - the municipal company that had been responsible for a series of public housing projects in the city of Lisbon - and the integration of its activity and workers into the municipal structure. And in 2017, under the leadership of Mayor Fernando Medina, the municipality launched the Accessible Income Program (PRA)with the promise of putting thousands of houses on the rental market at controlled prices.
A municipal housing conjecture has changed, which led the Lisbon City Council to revise the Vale de Santo António Urbanization Plan. "During the drafting of the PUVSA [Urbanization Plan for the Santo António Valley], it was planned that the plan, coordinated by Empresa Pública de Urbanização de Lisboa (EPUL), would be implemented with recourse to private investment through the sale of future plots for urban construction, in a real estate development logic“explained the Lisbon City Council in the available documentation. "Meanwhile, with the extinction of EPUL and the inherent transfer of its assets to the Municipality of Lisbon, the ownership of the land that makes up the PUVSA intervention area is currently mainly municipal (94%).”
"Currently, given the municipality's intention to develop a public housing policy - namely under the Affordable Rent Program (...) -, and because it recognizes in this territory, due to its location and the size of the area to be structured, a clear potential for the revitalization of the housing stock in this area of the city, it is justified to rethink some of the planning options assumed in the PUVSA“it read. Thus, in 2016/17, a revision of the PUVSA began in order to "to create the necessary conditions for the implementation of a public housing program in this territory, based on quality public spaces and proximity equipment and supported by an adequate accessibility system, ensuring its economic and financial viability and sustainable management of the territory". The municipality then reframed the Vale de Santo António Urbanization Plan, linking it to its Affordable Rent Program (PRA).
The 2017 amendment proposal kept the intentions of the original proposal - housing, a green park, public facilities - but suggested "review the density of occupation, with a reduction in building capacity, in order to ensure an adequate transition with the surrounding volumes in relation to the consolidated areas" and also "implement an urban solution that is better adapted to the natural topography of the territory, with a consequent reduction in urbanization and construction costs". In other words, fewer houses, more green area, and optimizing costs with another look at the land.
In the new Plan, the speech focused a little more on the urban park. "A central element of the PUVSA remains the creation of a large green space in the Santo António Valley to support recreational and leisure activities for the population which, taking into account its natural and landscape characteristics, contributes to the ecological balance of the urban environment, promoting the continuity and complementarity of natural systems and aiming for sustainable and integrated management of the territory."the terms of reference indicated. At the same time, it was suggested "ensure the principle of multifunctionality in the built-up areas associated with the urban park, thus promoting permanent use of the park at various times of the day" and also "complement the construction areas intended for the various uses by extending the respective activities in the urban park area, providing them with a place of confluence and centrality in this public space".
Also because it was a more contemporary proposal than the current Plan, there was already talk of "new mobility solutions, including the creation of a network of pedestrian and cycling routes to optimize the connection between the different urban areas"as well as "assess the suitability of the parking lot sizing parameters" taking into account the "mobility policy to be implemented". The Plan approved in 2012 focuses more on a city model with the automobile more present.
However, the process of amending the 2016/17 Urbanization Plan was never completed. At its meeting, the Lisbon City Council approved the new terms of reference - i.e. the document in which you, as the contracting authority, establish the terms by which a service is to be provided or a product is to be delivered by potential contractors. But it didn't do the rest: in other words, it didn't send the necessary documents to the Lisbon and Tagus Valley Regional Coordination and Development Commission (CCDR-LVT) so that, within the stipulated period of 270 days, all the remaining steps for amending the Plan could be carried out.
Thus, in mid-2020, we returned to the starting point of this process. Without changing the terms of reference (i.e. maintaining the general guidelines of what was to be changed) and taking advantage of the work done, the formal process of amending the Plan was restarted. However, once again, the procedure was not concluded with the CCDR-LVT and, in 2021, it was back to basics: with ideas of what is intended to be changed in the Urbanization Plan in force but without any resolved decision that would allow concrete intervention (works) to begin in the territory in question.
Urbanization Plan: what does the legislation say?
Article 98 | Object
- The urbanization plan develops and implements the municipal master plan and structures the occupation of the land and its use, providing the reference framework for the application of urban policies and defining the location of the main infrastructures and public facilities.
- The urbanization plan can cover:
- a) Any area of the municipality's territory included in an urban perimeter by an effective municipal master plan, as well as rustic land complementary to one or more urban perimeters, which proves necessary to establish an integrated planning intervention;
- b) Other areas of the municipal territory that can be used for urban uses and functions, namely for the location of industrial, logistics or service facilities or parks, or for the location of tourist developments and associated equipment and infrastructures.
- In county seats and urban areas with more than 25,000 inhabitants, the land use regime should preferably be provided for in a municipal urbanization plan.
Article 99 | Material content
- The urbanization plan adopts the material content appropriate to the conditions of the territorial area to which it refers, to the objectives of urban policies and to the transformations envisaged in the terms of reference and in the municipal resolution that determined its preparation, providing in particular for:
- a) The definition and characterization of the intervention area, identifying and delimiting the cultural and natural values to be protected and the archaeological information contained in the soil and subsoil;
- b) The general conception of the urban organization, based on the classification of the land, defining the structuring road network, the location of equipment for collective use and interest, the ecological structure, as well as the urban circulation system, public and private transport and parking;
- c) The definition of zoning for the location of the various urban functions, namely housing, commerce, tourism, services, industry and waste management, as well as the identification of areas to be recovered, regenerated or converted;
- d) The adequacy of the urban perimeter defined in the municipal master plan or intermunicipal master plan, according to the zoning and general design of the urban organization defined, including, in particular, the layout and sizing of the general infrastructure networks that structure the territory, establishing the respective channel spaces, the location and urban insertion criteria and the sizing of collective use equipment;
- e) The conditions for applying the land and urban policy instruments provided for in the law, in particular those relating to urban regeneration and rehabilitation of degraded urban areas;
- f) The urban planning indicators and parameters applicable to each of the categories and subcategories of spaces;
- g) The delimitation and objectives of the operational planning and management units or sub-units, the structuring of compensation actions and redistribution of benefits and burdens, and the identification of the plan's implementation systems.
Article 100 | Documentary content
- 1 - The urbanization plan consists of:
- a) Regulation;
- b) Zoning plan, which represents the territorial structure and land use regime of the area to which it relates;
- c) Conditioning plan, which identifies the administrative easements and public utility restrictions in force that may constitute limitations or impediments to any specific form of use.
- 2 - The urbanization plan is accompanied by:
- a) Report, which sets out the strategic objectives of the plan and its technical rationale, supported by an assessment of the environmental, economic, social and cultural conditions for its implementation;
- b) Environmental report, which identifies, describes and assesses any significant effects on the environment that may result from the implementation of the plan and reasonable alternatives, taking into account the respective objectives and territorial scope;
- c) Implementation program, containing, in particular, indicative provisions on the implementation of the planned municipal interventions;
- d) Model for redistributing benefits and burdens;
- e) Financing plan and justification of its economic and financial sustainability.
- The urbanization plan is also accompanied by the following additional elements:
- a) Framework plan, drawn up on a scale smaller than that of the urbanization plan, indicating the main communication routes, other relevant infrastructures and major facilities, as well as other elements deemed relevant;
- b) Plan of the existing situation, showing land use on the date of the decision to draw up the plan;
- c) A plan and report showing the license permits and prior communication titles issued for urban planning operations, as well as the prior favorable information in force or a statement proving that no such urban planning commitments exist in the plan area;
- d) Plans identifying the route of road infrastructures, water supply, sanitation, electricity, gas waste collection and pipelines for the installation of telecommunications infrastructures and other relevant existing and planned infrastructures in the plan area;
- e) Noise map, in accordance with Article 7(1) of the General Noise Regulation;
- f) Comments received during the public discussion and the respective weighting report;
- g) Statistical data sheet, on a model to be made available by the Directorate-General for Territory.
- The documentary content of the urbanization plan is adapted to its material content.
- The urbanization plan shall include qualitative and quantitative indicators to support the assessment provided for in Chapter VIII.
📁 Documents from 2017 to 2020
Where we are now
And so we come to 2022/23. The City Council and the Urban Planning Department have once again taken up the issue of the Vale de Santo António, this time as part of a program of intervention in some of the city's valleys. They were five valleys prioritizedAjuda, Alcântara, Almirante Reis, Chelas and, as mentioned, Santo António. The aim is to stitch the territory together, urban and socially, promoting the green structure, creating new connections and eliminating barriers between different areas.
As part of this program, a series of talks was held during the first half of this year at the Lisbon Urban Innovation Center (CIUL)The last session was dedicated to the Vale de Santo António - it's available here:
The amendment to the Urbanization Plan remains a priority, not only because of the need to increase the city's municipal housing parkbut also for the adapt to new environmental, economic, social and cultural conditions. According to the municipality, "As the territory in question is almost entirely owned by the municipality, the plan should play a decisive role in the pursuit of municipal housing policy, as currently advocated in the Local Housing Strategy, the Municipal Right to Housing Regulation and the Municipal Housing Charter currently being drawn up.". In total, the Plan involves construction of around 2,400 homes.
On the other hand, the proposed amendment once again focuses on the unifying element that brings the urban park together - a park "open and versatile" that you want "framed by facilities that are relevant to education and sport" and which should be an element of unification of the various neighborhoods and of "approximation of the southern and northern slopes of the largest subsidiary valley of the Vale de Santo António - the Vale Escuro". In the report of the new Urbanization Plan, there is talk of physical extension of the urban park "to the interior of adjoining fabrics to the north, south and east, either in the form of wooded and predominantly pedestrian green axes, or through private green patios"which "enriches the spatiality of the adjacent housing areas, giving the buildings healthiness and thermal control, and induces their residents to appropriate the outdoors". "A formal public garden, facing Avenida General Roçadas, adjoins the western edge of the park, and four viewpoints are proposed perimetrically - Alto da Eira, Vila Lopes, Quinta do Gusmão and Rua Álvares Fagundes - combining the contemplative aspect of the territory with the community ideal of meeting and living together."you can read.
Basically, the aim is to "a daily life enhanced by the physical and visual enjoyment of a comprehensive urban park, by the heritage of urban gardens, which have always been present in Alto da Eira and Vale de Santo António, and by capitalizing on the dominant views, with the Tagus as a backdrop". The Urbanization Plan "introduces not only links between the existing urban fabrics and the central area to be redeveloped, but also closes urban networks using transitional and continuous implantations and volumes, which enhance visual references, historical and urbanistic values and, by articulation, increase the urban intelligibility of this area of the city".
The Plan sets out a very clear objective for the entire Vale de Santo António territory: to create "a new neighborhood that will be a benchmark in terms of quality of life and environmental and social sustainability". To this end, four strategic objectives have been defined: a valley "more ecological, with a comprehensive and unifying green component"; "more accessible and inclusive, bringing its constituent neighborhoods closer together and introducing new mobility measures"; "more identifiable and livable, bringing together current and future residents around a community ecosystem"; and finally, "more resilient, with a focus on economic, social and cultural aspects".
Urban Concept
The proposed amendment is based on an "urban concept" with the following seven premises:
- Implementing a cohesive community structurewhere the predominant use of housing is complemented by commerce, services and a comprehensive network of facilities;
- Daily life based on proximityIt also reduces the distance to daily activities - accessible within a 10-minute radius from home - and relieves the pressure on public transport and private vehicles;
- Mobility as a unifying elementbased on pedestrianization;
- Urban park simultaneously aggregatorIt is also differentiating in that it brings greater social and environmental value;
- Identity as a referencing agentThis is a great way of enhancing pre-existing structures, views and values derived from the orography;
- Intelligibilitywith a view to adopting a global image and identity for the intervention;
- Safe designmeasures are adopted to safeguard spatial quality, public safety and health and safety principles in the design of new spaces.
The proposed amendment foresees a smaller construction area and fewer dwellings than the 2011/12 Plan in force - something that was also planned in the 2017 and 2020 amendment attempts. Looking at percentages, we're talking about 31% less construction area and 32% less housing, with the urban park increasing by 29% and the share related to the construction of sports, social and cultural facilities also increasing.
The proposal includes, in general, the same public facilities as previously planned, proposing "widespread distribution" these infrastructures "throughout the territory"in a polycentric and proximity-based perspective, which contradicts the "spirit of concentration". The aim is for this proximity model to be based on "new mobility options" and in "reducing travel time to facilities, shops and services"This includes the implementation of cycle paths, mechanical means of overcoming unevenness (such as elevators) and bike-sharing stations.
A central aspect of the amendment proposal now underway is that of "promoting the rational use of own cars"In this sense, although 1,800 parking spaces are planned - a large part in siloes, as in the 2011 Plan - there is talk of the creation of Mobility Centers. They would be spaces where "support services could be made available to reduce the resident population's need to travel (e.g. common delivery services, home help, etc.) and/or promote alternative mobility options to owning a car, such as car-sharing services (bike-sharing, preferential parking for car-sharing, etc.)".
Pedestrian mobility takes on an importance in this proposed change with the increase in walkability (ability to walk) as a parameter for assessing the territory and its quality of life. The aim is to create a connected, comfortable and clear pedestrian network, which includes not only wide sidewalks, but also some fully pedestrianized streets, coexistence zones and the aforementioned mechanical means, such as escalators or elevators, to overcome unevenness. These facilities are planned for six locations, one of them next to the Alto de São João Paradethe rest:
The implementation of the intervention proposed by the Vale de Santo António Urbanization Plan presupposes a minimum total investment of around 700 million eurosexcluding VAT. Urbanization works are estimated at 59 million, almost the same amount as car parking silos. The sum of public facilities is considerably cheaper - 49 million - and the biggest slice is for housing, commerce and services - 485 million euros. To this cake we still have to add the costs of financing urbanization works. With VAT, we're talking about an investment of between 750 and 860 million euros.
You can consult all the main documentation on the proposal to alter the Vale de Santo António Urbanization Plan that is on the table here:
📁 Amendment proposal documents
The first major step towards moving forward with the amendment to the Urbanization Plan was taken on May 31, at a public meeting of the Lisbon City Council. The discussion of the documents had first been scheduled for the previous public meeting, on May 3, but at the request of the socialist councillor, Inês Drummond, in direct contact with the Councillor for Urban Planning Joana Almeida (elected as an independent by the coalition New Times(PSD/CDS), was postponed to the next public meeting, on the 31st (because, as we have seen, an Urbanization Plan must always be voted on in public meetings).
At the meeting on the 31st, the parties on the left presented proposals to change the text that would accompany the vote on the new Plan. Citizens for Lisbon (CPL) wanted to “the allocation of all the housing provided for in this Plan to the construction of municipally-owned housing units for supported and/or affordable rental programs" - This point was approved and incorporated into the final text. The Left Bloc (BE), for its part, asked for something similar, "that all housing built be placed in the Affordable Rental Program and be used to reinforce the 100% Public pillar, and cannot be concessioned or sold" - This point was rejected in favor of that of the CPL. The PCP approved the "phased development of the planned building" as well as clarifying the resources and financial means needed to implement the Plan.
For its part, Livre was concerned about the limited presence of the cycling network in the proposal to amend the Plan and ordered "review all the drawings of the constituent elements of the Proposed Amendment to the Vale de Santo António Urban Plan, in order to clearly demarcate the presence of the cycling network in the Plan Area, as is done for the road network and the public transport channel"mandating introduction on Avenida Mouzinho de Albuquerque of a "safe, uninterrupted and segregated channel for road traffic" and also links from this "to the network planned for Avenida General Roçadas, either on existing roads or on the new streets created by the plan".
The PS did not present any amendments at the meeting because it worked directly with Joana Almeida's office on changes to some of the documents in the new Plan, in order to safeguard the public exploitation of the buildings to be built through the Affordable Rent ProgramAccording to a source in the Socialist cabinet, he told LPP. Phrases like "to use this area to increase the municipal public housing stock with the aim of allocating it to affordable rental programs promoted by the Municipality, thus seeking to retain families and young people" or "guarantee the predominance of residential use and the establishment of complementary uses to the residential function, annulling the intention to install a large shopping center in this territory" have been included in the proposed amendment to the Urbanization Plan as a result of discussions between the PS and the Urban Planning Councillor. The Socialist council also explains that the proposed amendment is similar to the one the party presented and developed earlier, between 2017 and 2020/21, and says that the process was not concluded in 2021 because of the electoral calendar.
You can consult the documents from the town hall meeting here:
📁 Documents from the discussion at the town hall meeting
Next steps
So where are we now? We're on the third step. Lisbon City Council is awaiting news from the Lisbon and Tagus Valley Regional Coordination and Development Commission (CCDR-LVT), and will also have to launch a public discussion on the subject and prepare the final version of the new Urbanization Plan (introducing, for example, the changes approved at the meeting at the proposal of the opposition parties). At the end of the process, it will need to be approved by the Municipal Assembly, which should be possible given the political consensus that this issue has generated and the joint work that has been done.
The new Urbanization Plan is necessary to requalify the Santo António Valley, resolving yet another wound in the city's urban fabric, reinforcing the municipal housing offer and providing a new urban park and new public facilities. And while this whole process is moving forward, it isn't, a citizens' group is launching an "alternative consultation" on the subject through LPP - with a survey running until the 31st.
