Portimão council is to resolve the planning issues surrounding the land at Barranco do Rodrigo, where a sports complex was to be built.
Plans for a football stadium, an Olympic-sized swimming pool, a multipurpose sports hall and large commercial area have been scrapped and a much reduced building project for houses and green areas will be approved.
The Council has been challenging the Regional Coordination and Development Commission for the Algarve to increase the construction area but the mayor finally has admitted defeat.
The best the Council has managed it to spread the construction of houses over the whole area, leaving more green spaces in between properties that can be designated as tourism units or for domestic use.
This housing project makes the land hugely valuable and the Council is to cash in, by selling the countryside plot.
Council mayor, Isilda Gomes, confirmed that she has instructed her minions to prepare a specification for the launch of a public sale of the land.
As to the price, Gomes says "it will be a very significant sum, because we are talking about one of the best and largest pieces of construction land in Portimão."
This sale will end the stalemate but there is the small matter of a court case between the Council and the company that was to build the sports complex - it wants €5 million in compensation. Gomes says that any promises made by the previous administration as to the use the land could be put to, can not be proved as nothing was written down.
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