According to newspaper Correio da Manhã, the project, to take shape between the Benagil and Marinha beaches, was issued with an “unfavourable opinion” from the evaluation committee of the Environmental Impact Study.
“The project would induce very significant and non-minimisable negative impacts” CM reported, quoting the Algarve Regional Coordination and Development Commission (CCDR), which chaired the evaluation committee.
To justify its opinion, in an Environmental Impact Statement, the CCDR highlights the “significant increase in human pressure” in an area where the beaches’ capacity is already “depleted”.
The proposal would imply an “almost fivefold increase in the current volume of road traffic in that area of the coast”, says the CCDR.
Other negative aspects it listed are “visual intrusion” in a coastal are “which still preserves original features”, and the “negative repercussion on biodiversity”, in particular, the effects on the “linaria algarviana” - a plant “under serious pressure, exclusive to the Western Algarve and bearer of legal protected status, which has one of its most representative population nuclei in that area”.
The five-star resort, located some 300 meters from the coastline, provided for an investment of 180 million euros and the creation of 312 jobs, with the construction of a hotel, a hotel-apartment and a village with a total of 1279 beds.
It was promoted by the company Benagil - Promoções Imobiliárias S.A.
CM stressed that a nucleus of tourist development covering 21.9 hectares is foreseen in the Lagoa Municipal Master Plan.