São Roque favors condominiums in SP water reserves – 09/30/2023 – Daily life

On the Wine Road in São Roque, advertisements for residential condominiums suggest that the real estate market has put the city, about 60 km from São Paulo known for its wineries and artichoke plantations, on the radar. The movement could gain strength if the municipality carries out a change in the law that allows large rural areas to be transformed into subdivisions suitable for the construction of residential condominiums.

Residents claim that the change threatens important springs and rivers for those who live in the city and surrounding areas, which includes part of the metropolitan region of São Paulo. It would also affect, they say, the landscape and agricultural production that attracts thousands of visitors and makes the local economy work.

Presented in February by the administration of Mayor Guto Issa (Podemos), the proposed revision of the São Roque Master Plan envisages the conversion of 49 km² of rural areas into different types of urban areas. With the change, the minimum lot size would be reduced from 20,000 m² to 360 m², for the most part, or to 500 m². The city hall states that the plan only formalizes the reality of the municipality, respecting environmental legislation.

Master Plan is the law that directs the development of a city. In São Roque, this legislation must be updated every ten years, but the review is delayed. The current plan is from 2006.

In addition to transforming rural areas into urban areas, the proposal also establishes that other types of zoning may have smaller lots. Farms installed over spring areas can have land reduced from 1,000 m² to 500 m².

“It changes almost the entire city,” says architect Adriana Cruz, 43, president of the São Roque City Council.

The discussion that allows for greater construction density takes place at a time when the real estate market in the interior of São Paulo is booming.

Sorocaba, whose metropolitan region includes São Roque, experienced an annual increase of 13% in the average price per square meter, valued at R$8,046, according to a survey by Abrainc (Brazilian Association of Real Estate Developers) released at the beginning of September.

Close to Estrada do Vinho, where you can now subdivide, the reporter visited a residential condominium under construction with 150 m² houses and a collective swimming pool. Each unit costs R$850,000, around R$5,700 per square meter.

The real estate attractiveness of the interior is attributed to the good economic performance of activities linked to agribusiness and property prices, which are still 40% below those practiced in the capital, on average, according to the president of Abrainc, Luiz França. He also cites remote work, during the pandemic, as a factor that increased the search for quality of life and contact with nature.

São Roque is one of the 78 municipalities that make up the Cinturão Verde de São Paulo Biosphere Reserve, an area of ​​forests with more than 2 million hectares surrounding the capital of São Paulo. It is considered by UNESCO as essential for the quality of life of the approximately 20 million inhabitants of the metropolis.

“This reserve provides major ecosystem services, such as water purification and provision, reduction of heat islands and supply of natural resources”, says environmental manager and belt researcher Danilo Sato.

Much of the urbanization planned for São Roque is located in the APA (Environmental Protection Area) of Itupararanga, whose dam of the same name is the main dam in the Sorocaba region.

The APA corresponds to the river basin that serves municipalities such as Alumínio, Ibiúna, Mairinque, Piedade and Votorantim, in the interior, in addition to Cotia and Vargem Grande Paulista, in Greater São Paulo.

There is a risk that real estate expansion will increase the need for São Roque to capture water from the São Lourenço system, explains geographer João Paulo Jeannine, 43, who has lived in the municipality for 13 years. “Instead of preserving our rivers, we are looking for water in another region,” he says.

Expanded following the 2014 water crisis, Sabesp’s São Lourenço system serves the western portion of Greater São Paulo.

Lack of water is not just a future concern in São Roque. Small rural properties are already suffering from the lack of resources, says Marília de Campos Orantas, 47, president of the Municipal Council for Sustainable Rural Development.

“Crops like artichokes need water, the humidity provided by the vegetation”, says Orantas. “In addition to tourism, there is a cultural issue that cannot be thrown in the trash in the name of this so-called progress that shoves its fast food franchises down our throats.”

In front of a high-end condominium is Quilombo Revolucionário do Carmo. Locally, country wells — shallow drillings to reach the water table — are increasingly dry.

Without them, the community will have difficulty maintaining the planting of organic vegetables for their own consumption and also sees their plan to commercialize their production in the future threatened, says Isaque da Cruz, 45, president of the quilombo.

According to the proposed revision of the Master Plan, the Quilombo area will be maintained as rural and, therefore, will not be subdivided. But its surroundings will have urban zoning.

“From the moment these condominiums arrive, because they have more resources, they will build artesian wells and we will run out of water,” says Cruz.

At the beginning of September, the city council removed the project from the Chamber’s Master Plan to reevaluate some points before voting. The municipal management was pressured by a provisional court decision, motivated by popular action, which suspended the proceedings to investigate any lack of transparency in the debate.

The City of São Roque told the Sheet that its proposal respects current environmental legislation and does not compromise the municipality’s water resources. In a statement, he said he was making the reality of the municipality official, which already has a 2020 law that allows lots of 360 m². He also stated that effectively rural areas will be maintained.