Urban renovations that leave their mark

This blog is written by Diego Vettori and Bárbara Zamora.

Thanks to its beautiful white sand beaches and turquoise sea, the city of Fortaleza has been recognized as one of the top tourist destinations in Brazil. It is precisely the sector’s dynamism that has driven the local government to leverage this appeal as an driver of economic development and urban renewal, improving access to goods and services while allowing people to enjoy the opportunities offered by the city. On this note we want to share the support that CAF is providing to develop an urban recovery intervention in a strategic area of the city, through an approach and instrument still very much unused in Latin American cities, and which we believe has high replication potential.

The urbanization process on the Fortaleza coast dates back several decades. Settlement of the northeast of the city began between the 50s and 70s. It was driven by the construction of the Port of Mucuripe (1952), and the large residential lots in the Praia do Futuro area, which according to the newspapers of the time were intended to attract the most socioeconomically favored classes to the last corners of untouched beachfront land available, with the intention to transform them into an high-end neighborhood, a sort of new “Barra da Tijuca,” as happened in Rio de Janeiro.

Years later urban settlement in the vicinity of Port of Mucuripe has been notably intense, mainly led by workers (builders, dockers, fishermen) attracted by the new job and economic opportunities created by the port. This process occurred haphazardly, and has led to precarious settlements that often lack urban infrastructure or basic services. The area experienced significant growth in industrial activities through the establishment of fish storage companies, wheat mills, a dairy factory, large oil and natural gas reserves, as well as commercial activities and tourist services, ranging from small businesses to real entertainment complexes, making Praia do Futuro one of the most important meeting points for Fortaleza residents and tourists. Despite this growth, even today there is plenty of potential to add new to existing uses, such as housing, offices, recreation areas and others.

The two areas (Cais do Porto and Praia do Futuro) have significant competitive advantages, are strategically located, have a historical relevance and particular scenic beauty, and they encourage development of a strategy proposed in the Plan Fortaleza 2040, by classifying them as special interest areas. This opportunity is made better still with the transfer of industrial activities from the Port of Mucuripe to the Pecém Industrial and Port Complex (also in the State of Ceará, 30 km from Fortaleza) which will create a set of unparalleled conditions for new usage of this space. This could be directed toward housing construction, technology companies, new highways, parks, recreation, leisure and recreation areas.

Keeping in mind the above and in order to reconcile the various interests and a robust urban planning and revitalization proposal for the Cais do Porto and Praia do Futuro area, CAF has granted technical cooperation to the Fortaleza city council to finance the studies required to perform a situational and multi-sectoral diagnosis, as well as an action plan so that the city council can make decisions based on results obtained from these studies. The tool indicated to meet this objective is the Urban Operations through Consortiums (in Portuguese Operações Urbanas Consorciadas, OUC), an instrument included in National Law 10.257/2001 “Cities Statute.” This allows the public sector to offer concessions that increase the land use buildability/flexibility rate in a specific special interest area to private enterprise, in exchange for a financial or physical counterpart, such as revitalizing a public space or social housing construction. This instrument has gained popularity thanks to its application in Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. The OUC aims to promote structural transformations within a certain perimeter, based on an urban plan capable of articulating the social, economic and environmental dimensions. It is a negotiation and consensus-building mechanism concerning the future of a given area, contemplating actions by the public authorities and the participation of the private sector and civil society.

In this sense, the work for the coming months will include the preparation of urban, economic and legal studies for the design and structuring of an urban planning instrument for the revitalization of the Cais do Porto and Praia do Futuro areas. Work on these four elements will be done in an integrated manner, so that the studies are also nourished by public debate, ensuring a democratic construction of the OUC. This work is expected to reduce the traditional territorial gaps in the area, guiding a planned intervention, consistent with the strategic objectives of long-term plans (such as the Master Plan or the Fortaleza 2040 Plan) in the territory and helping to improve social and financial inclusion and productivity of the city.