CML promotes public participation on Vale de Santo António

Approved in May at a town hall meeting, o new Urbanization Plan for Vale de Santo António - which makes several changes to a previous plan that, although approved, was never implemented - is now in a public participation phase. As well as providing an open line for citizens to submit comments, criticisms and suggestions, Lisbon City Council is promoting public forums to discuss the plan. The next session will be an open-air walk, without registration, where you can get to know the project and discuss it directly with the municipal technicians.

The walk will take place this Thursday, July 4, at the end of the day; the meeting point will be at 6 p.m. at 51 Rua Henrique Barrilaro Ruas. On Friday the 5th, the parish center of the Church of São Francisco de Assis, in Penha de França, will host a session in a more usual format, with a presentation and discussion of the proposal.

A proposal that can be consulted in full on the municipality's website (the main documents are published at the end of this article). The Chamber has also prepared a digital dossier on this subject. Ideas, criticisms, suggestions and other comments can be sent to the Municipal Urban Planning Department until the end of Julyvia the following e-mail: [email protected].

Here are several rendered images of the possible future Vale de Santo António, courtesy of architecture studio 18-25 and Lisbon City Council:

You can explore here these 3D images.

What is being planned for Vale de Santo António

With a strong housing component, the The Vale de Santo António Urbanization Plan is intended to bring together various urban experiences, based on the concept of the 15-minute city.The aim is for all the services and basic needs of residents to be within a 15-minute walk or bicycle ride. The aim is to improve the comfort and quality of life of those who live in the city, reinforcing the dynamics of proximity, creating meeting spaces, reducing inequalities in access to services and the use of public space and, at the same time, promoting greater involvement and participation by people in building the city.

In a nutshell:

• A new urban park of significant size will be created, framed by the Tagus;
• 2,400 affordable homes will be built, which will bring around 6,000 new residents to the area;
• Nearby green spaces, squares and viewpoints are planned;
• The slopes of the Santo António valley will communicate with each other;
• The cycling network will be extended (3 km);
• The 15-minute city concept will be put into practice;
• Various facilities are planned: a day care center, an elementary school, day care centers and a student residence.

Located in one of the few areas to be consolidated in the historic center, between Graça and Alto de São João, the Vale de Santo António is an opportunity, due to its location and size, to carry out a series of interventions to upgrade and enhance this degraded and forgotten area. This large-scale operation will be implemented in phases through operational units, over an expected period of 12 years.

This new Urbanization Plan for Vale de Santo António follows on from the same document that was approved in 2012 but never executed. Recognizing the importance of intervening in this territory, the Lisbon City Council has moved forward in the current municipal term to revise this plan in order to guarantee its feasibility, based on citizen participation and the opportunity to align the urban model with climate adaptation and sustainable urban development strategies, aimed at improving the environment and quality of life in general.

The area of intervention of the Vale de Santo António Urbanization Plan covers the parishes of Penha de França and São Vicente and has 480 thousand m²of which 94% is municipal property, 4% is state property and 2% is private property.

An urban void

The current urban setting of Vale de Santo António is indicative of the city's asymmetrical development: the urban emptiness of this territoryThis area, corresponding to the majority of the plan's surface, was systematically neglected for over a century - and through various municipal plans and initiatives - essentially because of the added challenges that its urbanization entailed. Since the end of the 19th century and throughout the 20th century, the occupation of this territory has been haphazard and organic, generally using precarious constructions.

This dispersed occupation gave way in the second quarter of the 20th century to occupation by social housing neighborhoods, such as the various generations of the PER Program, or EPUL Jovem, but without overcoming the orographic obstacles, resulting in a fragmented territory today.