VILA DO Bispo Câmara has accused the ICNB, the national environmental authority, of violating the law when ordering the embargo of villa construction in the Parque Natural do Sudoeste Alentejano e Costa Vicentina (PNSACV) area at the beginning of 2007.
Almost a year after the first villas were embargoed (see The Resident edition of July 13), Gilberto Viegas, president of Vila do Bispo Câmara, denounced what he describes as severe “law violation without any legal support and only based on a requirement of permit from the Park directors”.
According to the Vila do Bispo president, the embargoes ordered by the PNSACV in the areas of Carriços, Martinhal and Espargueira are illegal, because all of those areas are due for tourism occupation “as it is established by the Plano Director Municipal”, the local urban building regulating plan. This was the same argument he put forward to The Resident in July but it didn’t stop the heads of PNSACV of ordering the embargo on the construction of several villas belonging to individuals.
However, the long wait for a resolution may be over after a major investor, trying to build a five star hotel in the Martinhal area with an estimated investment of 82 million euros, received the green light for the project from the ICNB.
The investor, who was at the press conference organised by the Vila do Bispo Câmara, revealed that his project was first presented to the Natural Park in 2004 and only after three years and three different lawyers did the ICNB gave a positive decision for the hotel construction to go ahead.
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