A efetividade do estatuto da cidade para promoção do desenvolvimento urbano : avanços e limitações em cidades médias do Rio Grande do Sul.

Abstract

The Brazilian Federal Law 10.257/2001 – known as City Statute – is considered a fundamental regulatory framework for Brazilian urban policy, which enforces principles and constitutional rights regarding the social function of property and the right to the city. The law presents a series of innovative urban tools to guide the urban policy of municipalities. In this master’s Thesis, we seek to understand – in the local context of its implementation – the factors that pose conditions and interfere in the effectiveness of the enforcement of said law and its instruments, as well as its territorial effects. For the analysis outline, we used average-sized cities in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, and selected the municipalities of Santa Cruz do Sul and Bento Gonçalves. In the research, interviews were carried out with social contributors in the planning process for these municipalities (executive, legislative, judicial, and community agents), and the implementation of the instruments was analyzed according to three classifications: urban development instruments, land regularization instruments, and urban management. The results showed that despite some advances, the effectiveness of the City Statute’s urban instruments is still low, since most of the instruments are set forth by the law but are not implemented, and those in use do not completely meet their objectives. We identified that there is still need for more implementation of the City Statute’s content and its guidelines for the law to play a part in these municipalities’ reality. Some obstacles of technical character have been observed, such as the lack of technical studies, resources (financial and human), and fragmented management, which make it difficult to implement and apply the instruments. Obstacles of political nature have also been observed, such as pressure from business and political groups that use urban policy to serve personal interests. Regarding the set of urban development instrument, the research points out the instruments’ inapplicability to tackle real estate speculation, such as compulsory subdivision and construction, and progressive Property Tax increase over time. On the other hand, the instruments of the government devices known as “Onerous Grant of Right to Build”, “Transfer of Right to Build”, and the Neighborhood Impact Study are more accepted, but the redistributive character of said instruments is not perceived. Despite the demarcation of the Special Areas of Social Interest (ZEIS) and the recognition of the city’s irregular areas, there are still many cases of injustice in the accessibility to urbanized land, and the processes of socio-spatial segregation are reinforced by municipal planning and housing policies. Regarding land regularization, the process has been very controversial, considering the new possibilities granted by Brazilian Provisional Bill 759 (2016) and Brazilian Law 13.465 (2017), in which the legal aspect has been prioritized, and urbanization is not keeping up with these processes. The instruments of urban management democratization have been observed as inefficient, since they do not favor the participation of the population, especially the poorest. Finally, the research shows that there is a long way to go before the City Statute achieves its main objective of providing fairer, more democratic and sustainable cities, showing that the effort for its implementation must continue.