How to achieve the land social function from tourism land uses: a case study in the Algarve (Portugal)

Abstract

This paper presents the goals, methodology, expected results and conclusions of a new territorial management instrument - developed in the scope of the new Land, Territorial Ordinance and Urbanism Act and complementary legislation currently passed in Portugal - aimed at capturing part of the unearned increments (surplus values) that accrue from planning decisions concerning land uses, land use changes and/or land use intensities. It consists in charging landowners/promoters a 20% fee on land surplus-values that result from the assignment of specific building capacities - objectively settled in territorial plans - to urban interventions especially targeted to tourism uses. This captured value should reinforce municipalitiesŽ financial sustainability, and is supposed to be reassigned to social purposes, such as social housing or urban rehabilitation, thus supporting the achievement of the land social function. The proposed methodology is applied to the Urban Development Plan of the Planning Unit 11 of the municipality of Lagoa, located in the Algarve, Portugal. However, it is easily applicable to other municipalities, whichever is their geographic location, and to many different kinds of territorial plans.