The Algarve Municipal Master Plans: The Context – from the Law to PROTAL

Abstract

From the resolutions for the drafting of the municipal master plans of the Algarve region to the entry into force of the most recent amendments thereto, these local planning procedures were co-determined by exogenous and significant central urban law interventions. Thus, it is necessary to assess, in this process and within this tension between powers, the implementation of constitutionally rooted principles concerning spatial planning and urbanism (particularly those related to the duty of territorial planning, the right to a healthy environment, local government autonomy, and the right to private property). Specifically, it is necessary to evaluate the test of internal harmony within the doctrinal framework of urban law in the relationship between the PROT and the municipal master plans. In this article, we will outline the normative and factual context, which will allow, in the next issue of this journal, a reasoned attempt to undertake the evaluations outlined. Given the singularity of the Algarve region (also) in terms of the planning procedural sequence, useful extrapolations for the exercise of the current urban law framework will therefore be offered.