A lawyer for the Cascais Municipal Council told the Sintra Administrative and Fiscal Court on Friday that the positive impacts of the planned urbanization of the Quinta dos Ingleses outweigh the negative ones, as judges consider an injunction seeking to halt the project.
Helena Magno said the Carcavelos detailed plan was extremely thorough, capable of producing registry effects, with a level of detail and specification that allowed it to move toward a registration phase equivalent to a lot-parceling permit.
Magno, a technical official at Cascais Council, was speaking during the trial of a precautionary injunction aimed at stopping the urbanization of the Quinta dos Ingleses, in the parish of Carcavelos. She said the Detailed Plan for the Carcavelos South Urban Restructuring Area, known by its Portuguese acronym PPERUCS, had set out all maximum parameters for construction areas, housing units and land cessions.
She said the differences found in the lot-parceling operation all favored the municipality: the building footprint was about 10,000 square meters smaller than allowed under the detailed plan, permeable area was about 40,000 square meters larger, and there were 80 fewer housing units and smaller cession areas than the plan permitted.
Legal challenge halted construction
The injunction stems from a popular action brought by the movement 66 Pela Quinta against Cascais Council, with construction firm Alves Ribeiro and St. Julian's School named as co-interested parties. The action was filed in October 2025 and led to a halt in construction work.
Magno said she was left somewhat stunned when she read in the media that studies were said to be inadequate or incomplete, since they were signed by technicians from bodies with specific environmental responsibilities, including the Institute for Nature Conservation and Forests, the Portuguese Environment Agency, and the Regional Coordination and Development Commission.
Environmental assessment and zoning history
She noted that the 1997 Municipal Master Plan had already classified the area as urban land, under the category of singular development space. She added that the favorable environmental impact statement reflected an assessment in which positive impacts outweighed negative ones, since an unfavorable balance would have produced an unfavorable statement instead.
Magno described the site as no idyllic forest, pointing to diseased trees, dumped construction materials, and regular encampments and campfires. She said the area is due to be turned into an urban park, which by now should already have been handed over to the council.
Responding to a lawyer for the 66 Pela Quinta movement, Magno said the results of public participation in the environmental impact consultation had not been published by the council, though interested parties could consult the file directly.
Land handovers and costs
On land cessions to the municipality, she estimated that more than 50 percent of the parceled area, totaling 27.9 hectares, would be handed over by the developer under terms negotiated as part of the PPERUCS. She confirmed to a lawyer for Alves Ribeiro that facilities including educational, social, cultural and sports amenities, plus beach-support parking, would be worth 15.5 million euros, with a further 2 million euros allocated for complementary works.
Revised construction timeline
Questioned by a lawyer for St. Julian's, Magno said deadlines for both the private and public works had been shortened, bringing forward projects including an underpass beneath the Marginal road, the urban park, social, sports and educational facilities, and close to 800 parking spaces near the beach.
The lawyer for Cascais Council withdrew a planned witness, saying he had already attended earlier hearings, citing confusion over the witness's name.
Another council official, Luís Campos Guerra, director of the Territorial Management department, confirmed that the lot-parceling operation had fully complied with the detailed plan and had not reached the maximum thresholds it allowed.
Besides roughly 10 hectares earmarked for the urban park, further cessions are planned for a parking area near Carcavelos Beach and for the regularization of the EN6-7 road variant, which has already been built on private land.
The hearings are due to continue on 25 and 28 September, with witnesses from the council, Alves Ribeiro and St. Julian's still to testify.
