A.R.I.A. BUR — Areas of Relevant Environmental Interest Approved

According to Article 5 of Regional Law No 42/1996, which provided for the delimitation of areas of major environmental interest (A.R.I.A.) to be subject to detailed planning pursuant to Regional Law No 52/1991 (paragraph 4, Article 18), having regard to the presence of hydrogeological, environmental and sites of Community or national importance and the non-inclusion of parks, reserves or retrieval areas, the Offices of the Directorate for Territorial Planning carried out a survey of the areas with natural value and from the considerations resulting therefrom in agreement with the then Regional Parks and Forestry Company, which led, in June 1997, to the submission of the regional boundaries. Subsequently, following the requests and comments of several municipalities on the planning procedures, Article 10 of Regional Law No 13/1998 amended the operative part of Article 5 of Regional Law 42/96, providing, inter alia, that once they were established, the A.R.I.A. would be subject to variations to the RGC programmes instead of the detailed regional territorial plans, but included the mandatory nature of the “Technical Documents of Guideline — DTI” legislation.The introduction of these legislative amendments led to a new phase of consultations between the Regional and Local Administrations which eventually made possible the good proposals of the municipalities concerned.