Urban renewal laws: each topic to be reviewed separately

Raimundo do Rosário

The laws for urban renewal will be established independently for each urban renewal topic, Secretary for Transport and Public Works Raimundo do Rosário revealed yesterday after an Urban Planning Committee meeting.

“Concerning issues of the laws related to the Urban Renewal Committee, I want to clarify that the Committee made a choice which [means it won’t be] us making an urban renewal law, [that is], making a big law. We chose instead to establish a law for every single matter [concerning urban renewal topics],” said Rosário.

Rosário remarked that, on Friday, the Legislative Assembly (AL) will discuss the tax rebate benefits regime concerning urban renewal.

He highlighted that this law, like the others, will be developed independently.

“Gradually, we will [make laws] regarding the reconstruction of old buildings […] and temporary houses. […] I want to clarify that this is not about us not wanting to make laws. We just chose not to make an integrated legal framework,” explained Raimundo.

The Secretary does not know which law will be established first.

“It’s difficult to talk about the legislation procedures,” said Raimundo.

Yesterday’s meeting focused on the number of documents behind the management of the committee’s operation.

Besides discussing the schedule for establishing laws for the Committee, the members also passed an internal regulation.

“[The committee] is one part of the governmental structure, […] it has to be supervised by the law. [The committee] called the members to pay attention to the fact that the committee is a collegial body,” said Raimundo.

The Secretary noted that “there are three possibilities for carrying out urban renewal. Owners can do it by themselves; a private contractor can buy the properties and perform the reconstruction; or, the government can do it. It is not necessary to wait for us [the government] to do it.”

Rosário pointed out that the government and private contractors need to get approval from each property owner to carry out urban renewal works.

“Each building has property owners, therefore we [the government] cannot go to each building and ask owners to leave, so that the government can carry out the renovation. We must reach an agreement with all these owners,” the Secretary said, while commenting on the reconstruction of buildings.