As possibilidades de um instrumento: o estudo de impacto de vizinhança e sua utilização em Belo Horizonte

Abstract

This paper discusses the analysis of the Neighborhood Impact Study, an urban management tool provided by the City Statute, which enables the evaluation of the impacts caused by the enterprises and activities to be inserted into the urban environment, in order to point out the implementation feasibility, as well as the mitigation and compensatory measures to remedy the negative effects and the potentiating measures that may increase the positive effects. The Neighborhood Impact Study aims not only to protect the urban order of potentially degradation agents, but also to promote the democratic management of space, thus ensuring a balanced urban environment and a sustainable development of cities, for the populations quality of life and the safeguard of the built heritage. The research proposed, at first, to delineate the historical panorama of urban policies that favored the development of the Neighborhood Impact Study, to then expose its regulations, the experiences of implementation in some Brazilian cities and the differences regarding the instruments for environmental protection Environmental Impact Assessment and Environmental Impact Report (EIA-EIR). The study aimed also to illustrate the mechanism of Neighborhood Impact Study through its application in Belo Horizonte and the controversial urban licensing process for two hotels to be implanted in the Pampulha Special Guidelines Area. The case study presented here showed that even restrictive laws, such as those related to the Special Guidelines Areas, can be modified to become more permissive and the Neighborhood Impact Study good intentions canceled before the strength of the economic interests.