Setúbal expands eastwards creating new conurbation
A project for the expansion eastwards of the port and industrial town of Setúbal, planned since the 1980s, is finally getting off the ground with a new conurbation including a residential area with 676 apartments.
The area in question has over decades become blighted by derelict land, illegal construction, rundown municipal neighbourhoods, yet with good road accesses and a riverfront with great investment potential.
The area East of Setúbal is enjoying a renaissance in a similar way to what had happened from the 1990s onwards with East Lisbon with the regeneration of old neighborhoods from the turn of the last century, old factories and spent and contaminated industrial land along the Tagus estuary to become the Parque das Nações regeneration project and new Marvila redevelopment.
On Thursday, the Mayor of Setúbal, Maria das Dores Meira (She was elected on October 12) was at the official foundation stone laying of the new conurbation Parque da Cidade (City Park) – Riverside Living which the municipality says will become a “new anchor for the city”.
In this vast area, which is still markedly rural, there are municipal neighborhoods in need of rehabilitation, Institute of Housing and Urban Rehabilitation (IHRU) designated land with illegal agricultural and housing construction and, with great potential, a river front that is still markedly industrial and with several dilapidated or ruined buildings.
The vast green park that will intertwine with the city center at the beginning of Avenida Luísa Todi will be vital for urban recovery, highlights Maria das Dores Meira. Community gardens, viewpoints and elevated pedestrian paths will be part of this project, the first 30 hectares of which were symbolically handed over to the municipality last Thursday by the developer of the new Riverside Living City Park development.
