The Government wants to “reduce procedures” to shorten the deadlines for reviewing Municipal Master Plans (PDM) and guarantee “less delay in granting construction licenses”, the Minister of Territorial Cohesion revealed today.
“We are going to have to make major changes to these laws. The response time has to be as set out in the law. Currently, the average review of the PDM is more than five years. We are going to have a more energetic position in terms of spatial planning, also in relation to construction licenses”, stated Manuel Castro Almeida, also Minister of Economy, during a regulatory hearing at the Commission for State Reform and Local Power of the Assembly of the Republic, in Lisbon.
The official said that, regarding the review of the PDM, “the solution is not to increase the number of technicians, but to reduce procedures”.
The same review is being prepared “to ensure less delay in granting construction licenses”, he said.
“We are going to have to touch a lot of people’s backyards to solve this problem”, he stressed.
Castro Almeida noted that the PDM problem “is under the Government’s sights”.
“It will be a priority to work on this. I have a meeting with the presidents of the Coordination and Development Committees on Thursday and this could help define a calendar”, he said, in response to questions about deadlines from IL deputy Carlos Guimarães Pinto.
The minister said he has a “very ambitious” objective, but that it will “take time”.
“If we reach the end of the legislature meeting legal deadlines, it would be a remarkable result. Not meeting these deadlines by the end of the legislature would be halfway to achieving an objective. But we will definitely make progress”, he guaranteed.
The problem, he indicated, “has been accumulating over years” and “it is necessary to start reversing the cycle”.
“It is necessary to have shorter and shorter deadlines to reach a normal situation”, he explained.
PS deputy Jorge Botelho observed that “the chambers’ powers are limited in many matters and the Government is to blame”.
“As for simplification, we are in agreement. The chambers and mayors are not at fault. If the law is clear and objective, the mayor decides because he wants the development of the territory”, he stated.
Responding to the deputy, the minister assured that the Government “is committed to ensuring that State institutions provide their opinions within the deadlines”, warning that the national executive “does not license works”.
Chega deputy Bruno Nunes expressed concern about the PDM, pointing out that in the process “there are more chiefs than Indians”.
“I only see the possibility of agreeing positions on the right and eliminating the entropies that the PS was creating,” he said.