The mayor of the Municipality of Figueira da Foz, Pedro Santana Lopes, considered the actions of public bodies in the Lagoa da Vela tourism project process, which has been dragging on for almost 30 years, inadmissible. The mayor criticized the demands made within the procedural conference, above all by the Commission for Coordination and Regional Development of Centro and the Portuguese Environment Agency, and contested the fact that previously conducted studies are not being used.
In 1998, the municipality acquired from the State a 100-hectare plot of land, in the parish of Bom Sucesso, to develop a tourism project that included a golf course. Santana Lopes compared the current situation to the blockage of the project that occurred in 1999, when José Sócrates, then Minister of the Environment, vetoed the planned intervention. The process was stalled until February 2025, when a contract was signed between the Municipality and Lagoa da Vela – Empreendimentos Imobiliários e Turístico Desportivos, S.A. for the elaboration of the Detail Plan.
The project obtained favorable opinions from five entities and unfavorable from three, with one of the reservations, from Turismo de Portugal, already having been overcome. However, the requirement to carry out an Environmental Impact Assessment in parallel with the Detail Plan remains, despite having already obtained a favorable conditioned environmental impact declaration in 2008. The municipality approved by majority a deadline extension of the process, with the vote against of the mayor himself.
Santana Lopes considered that the new demands represent a dilatory maneuver likely to wear down the promoters. According to councilor João Martins, the new framework should delay the elaboration of the execution project and the start of works by more than one year, which should only begin in 2028. The Detail Plan provides for a villa zone with two floors, tourist developments and a golf course, seeking to reconcile land occupation with the preservation of the natural and landscape values of Lagoa da Vela.
