As populations grow globally and mankind’s footprint reaches out across our beautiful planet, it has become essential to manage that growth responsibly, ensuring sustainability by protecting the environment and meeting the needs of an expanding population..

Over the years, this has become increasingly necessary, in almost all areas of Portugal.  Mankind needs to meet the demands of the society, and has spread out to obtain housing, natural resources and infrastructure. To ensure this order is maintained, in a sustainable fashion, most governments and local authorities approve laws and regulations that are published in what is known as the municipal masterplan.

A municipal masterplan is a legal and fundamental instrument in the management of territory under the control of each local authority. It defines the strategic objective of the territories development in that particular municipality, and serves as the overriding document of reference in the development of all other municipal plans.

Its objective is to improve the quality of life of the populations living there, preserve natural resources and manage the use of land in a balanced manner, permitting its occupation, use, and transformation, and permitting activities to carried out by mankind, without destroying beyond repair, the environment in which they are occupy, thus creating a harmony suitable for all .

From an administration point of view this has to be an activity controlled by a public body, any other option would be impossible to control in a fair and just manner.

The masterplan at a local level

At this time, most of the land in Portugal is covered by ordnance plans which have been approved by law in most municipalities. These plans are ever changing and their revision is constant. The Loule masterplan, to which we will refer more often in this article is currently in a revision phase. 

The Algarve was mostly inhabited by local fisherman and their families, and small agricultural holdings as recently as 60 years ago. As such there wasn’t a need to enforce major restrictions on the use of land for building or for protection of its natural resources. 

As the Algarve evolved and became popular as a tourist attraction so did the need for central and local authorities to discuss and prepare stricter controls that would satisfy the interests of all parties, be they private, government, municipal, environmental and many others who may have a stake or concern  in a particular location. 

In late 20th century, coordinated documents, collated the various disperse laws into one document where all parties were heard.  As can be imagined this is a huge task. For example, in the Loulé masterplan, the consultative entities in the preparation and approval of the local masterplan include, to name a few: 

RAN – National Agricultural Authority ;

REN  – National Ecological Authority ; 

Area where the RAN and REN have mutual interest;

Ria Formosa Natural Park;

APA – Environmental Authority for amongst others the control of Water Courses;

Cultural and National heritage;

there are many others such as the airport authority, railroad authorities, electricity national grid, roads which are controlled and maintained by municipal, regional or highways separately, and many others too numerous to list here. 

Eventually all entities must have a say and be heard before a final document is compiled.  This document must then be made available for public discussion before it can be approved, entered into law and finally enforced. It is a long and laborious exercise which has taken many man hours to prepare over the years and with the exponential tourist boom that took place at the same time, many mistakes have been made and the density of housing in the landscape has put a strain on the environment and infrastructures available. 

Fortunately at this point in time most of the work necessary in the compilation of the masterplan are in place and revisions have been made to mitigate problems as they occur. Currently the rules applicable to each municipality are in the broad sense defined, and embodied in each municipalities masterplan. 

The detail is defined and implemented by the local authority following the guidelines of the masterplan and when the municipality or government consider a change to the masterplan is necessary revisions are introduced, which must follow the more laborious process described before.

It is fair to note that any application for a building must be approved by any of the above entities if its location falls into the area controlled by that entity before it can be built. This can be problematic both in time and obtaining approval, if it is outside predefined urban areas. This is why the predefined urban areas are the safest to consider developing. It is natural to expect that more and more this will be the route to follow and building remote will become more difficult. 

The resultant Ordnance Plan will identify the administrative servitudes, and the restrictions for public utility to be observed, and where urban, industrial and industry, of all types can be implemented, each with their own rules and regulations.  

The implementation of the masterplan is the responsibility of the local authority and when we think of buying a piece of land, building a house or starting some sort of business the permissions and restrictions of the masterplan must be considered in their broad sense. In an urban area this is already considered by the plan and the developer who will have had it approved, built the infrastructures necessary for the number of houses he has proposed by dividing the land into plots, which can be sold individually, and on which a villa can be built.  All of the rules and regulations imposed in the masterplan will have had to be complied with and negotiated with the local authority, by the developer, in its approval process. 

It is important to remember that this activity is the obligation the developer, which he has taken on with the permission of the local authority, and that the amenities serving that development must be handed back to the relevant authorities, built as approved, for them to service the plots.

Always check that the developer has completed his obligation to avoid problems,
even in urban areas where this check may not seem to be necessary.

If you want to go outside designated urban areas, you need to be much more careful, as restrictions of building outside the urban footprint are very strict and becoming more so everyday. The most recent revision of the masterplan being discussed seems to be going in the direction of preventing this altogether. The setback from the coast, at five hundred metres currently, has also become very sensitive and new construction is becoming very difficult. The local authority should be consulted before you commit.