Revision of the Portuguese Land Use Law: Impacts on Planning Policies

Abstract

The Portuguese Land Use Law is currently under revision. This law dates from 1976 and it has failed to keep up with the socio-economic evolution of the country during the last three decades and a half, being completely mismatched from reality. Within this context, the central theme of this article focuses on the identification of problems, inefficiencies and hindrances to urban development that accrued from the application of the currently enforced law. The pursued methodology founds on the analysis of the homologous Spanish law. The expected outcomes consist in the identification, through compared law, of some proposals to surmount these problems, inefficiencies and hindrances, namely in order to: -assure all citizens access to housing (avoiding real estate speculation); control urban sprawl, and recover most vacant dwellings; fight urban corruption, assuring higher transparency and citizen participation in urban processes; allocate the surplus-values engendered by public planning decisions for the social interest in general. These proposals materialize, namely through: the settlement of a sustainable urban development; a new concept of land property rights; renewed assessment of the duties of landowners and other stakeholders involved in urban development processes; alternative land valuation criteria, according to the current and real value of land; application of different land management tools. This paper is relevant for planning education, practise and scholarship. Indeed it adds to the current debate on land use instruments and policies, in order to support more efficient planning policies that better fit real needs, and able to surmount the prevailing crisis, thus contributing to territorial sustainable development and to citizens' quality of life.