Thirteen approved projects to build hotels and houses along the Algarve’s coast between Odeceixe and Vilamoura – which together represent 20,000 new tourist beds and 7,000 new houses – are due to be reviewed.
The news was revealed last week by the regional development commission (CCDR Algarve).
As it explains, the process to come up with a new coastal plan for Odexeice to Vilamoura (POC-OV), which will replace the existing coastal plans for Odeceixe-Burgau and Burgau-Vilamoura, is due to begin soon. If all goes according to plan, it will be completed by October 2020.
However, the commission believes that the process should include “the obligatory evaluation” of plans to build within 500 metres of the coastline.
It adds that there were 47 plans for coastal construction along the region’s coastline in 2017, 13 of which have been approved but have not yet begun construction.
According to CCDR Algarve, these projects were either approved before the Algarve’s PROTAL regional land management plan came into force or benefitted from an exceptional regime that meant that they were not subjected to the restrictions that had been in place along the region’s coastline.
Explains the commission, the new POC-OV will set rules for coastal waters along the Algarve’s coastline and in inland areas such as rivers as well as a strip of 500 metres within the coastline which in some cases can be extended to 1,000m.
