There was a BEACH in the MIDDLE of the way: The urban land speculative retention in Natal coastal areas submitted to the Height Control of ZET-3
Planning and Management. Coastal Areas. Urban Voids. Height Control.
The Brazilian coast has been the scenario of territorial conflicts between their traditional populations and the property market, civil construction, and tourism agents. In Natal city, the intermediation of this conflict consolidated urban land management strategies, like the Special Zones of Tourist Interest (ZET), altered during the last revision of the Natal Master Plan in 2022, whose correlations of forces favored the interests of these agents. This dissertation deals specifically with the ZET-3, whose urban parameters preserved both the landscape of the Natal central coast and encouraged the insertion of new tourism uses. The objective is to understand its urban voids formation and the incidence of its height control in this process. The hypothesis is that the land occupation in these territories has evidenced the formation and maintenance of urban voids and the abandonment of its buildings since the regulation of ZET-3, pari passu the construction of the narrative that makes urban control responsible for this process. The flexibilization of the regulations appeared as a solution in the master plan revision. Specifically, this dissertation proposed to 1) discuss the incidence of coastal zoning and its interference in land use and occupation dynamics; 2) analyze the morphological characteristics of the urban elements, highlighting the urban voids; 3) highlight the land situation, historically identifying the formation of these urban voids from the height control institution; 4) understand the territorial conflicts resulting from this control; and 5) build possible land occupation scenarios, considering the restrictions established by the old regulation and the changes brought in the PDN 2022. From the understanding of the territory occupation and urban voids process and the PDN 2022 changes, it was possible to identify indicators that relate the height control institution to the property market downturn, like the slowdown in occupation and the vacancy of its buildings. These indicators are strongly related to speculative retention by the landowners. The changes in the ZET-3 regulation could make the parameter limits more flexible and maximize the density and permitted uses, promoting the expansion of closed capital.