Olhão council at last has taken control is its own waterfront in a deal signed today with Docapesca (see picture below).
The area in question is classified as maritime public domain so until today has been under the jurisdiction of Docapesca which traditionally had contracted out the management of the area to the council.
With the signing of today’s agreement to release control of this important riverside zone to the council, improvements and upgrading of the run down area can be put into action by the council, when funding permits.
The transfer to the council will mean its illegal collection of parking meter charges, market revenues and fees from traders can be legitimised.
The riverside zone comes under the auspices of Polis but as this discredited organisation is being wound up at the end of the year, and has failed to spend any money in the area in the past ten, Olhão’s ratepayers now will shoulder any development costs.
Initially, intervention will target the area in front of the hotel but it is the future plans for the historic city centre that concerns locals now that the mayor has reign over a wider area of Olhão and an already discredited masterplan in his bottom draw.
Mayor António Miguel Pina commented that the deal is a milestone in the rehabilitation of the waterfront of Olhão as the council now can start improvements and an upgrading of certainly one of the best areas of the city - “this is an achievement for which we have fought for a long time."
Olhão’s community already has come across Pina’s bright new image for the city and many watched with deepening concern the removal of ancient calçada streets, replaced with machine-cut paving slabs.
The ruination of a series of squares in the historic centre of the city by digging up the calçada, installing out-of-context modern lighting and placing inappropriate seating, was but phase one and further removal of the historic city centre calçada, laid in unique geometric designs from the '30s to the '50s, is contained in a plan from the Lisbon architects that still may be used.
The Lisbon architects' masterplan includes upgrade work in and around the historic markets in the riverside area for which the council now is responsible. There also exists a plan for a leisure zone, cafes, restaurants and marina space opposite the Real Marina Hotel & Spa at the western limit of the city.
Now that Pina has control over the land in a band along the river frontage it remains to be seen whether he has listened to the concerns of residents and pressure groups, or will adhere to his wider vision of an out-of-place modern concept for Olhão.
The city's tourism appeal is based on the very designs and quirky charms that leaves it as the sole survivor, having avoided the '70s and '80s excesses that blighted coastal cities and towns across the region which left Olhão untroubled by many aspects of modernity.
If the council plan is to continue to modernise the market areas and city centre along the clean-cut lines already used, Pina will have stiff opposition not least from the hundreds of foreign residents whose reasons for choosing Olhão is its lack of modernity and the charm of a city that clearly once was wealthy and whose housing stock slowly is being refurbished by individual effort.
