Duel of the Titans: Analysis of the Potentials and Limitations of Real Estate Verticalization in Balneário Camboriú

Abstract

Since 1970, the Santa Catarina municipality of Balneário Camboriú has opted for a strategy of radical densification, allowing almost limitless verticalization on the central border. The city built a unique landscape, bringing together eight of the largest buildings in the country. This strategy is reflected in the master plans and legislation for land use and occupation, which opted for flexible urban control, seeking to manage the impact of large enterprises on a case-bycase basis. More recently, the municipality has been using urban planning instruments provided for in the City Statute to, on the one hand, maximize positive externalities arising from real estate development and, on the other hand, minimize impacts caused by the negative externalities of this urbanization process. To collectively appropriate benefits generated by real estate appreciation, the city has been using consortium urban operations to raise funds from the real estate sector for infrastructure works. The use of neighborhood impact studies, on the other hand, seeks to minimize and compensate for the socioenvironmental and landscape impacts of large projects. The analysis of economic, tax and socio-environmental indicators seems to demonstrate that the municipality has achieved success in terms of economic and socio-environmental development, but it is observed that a better use of the available urban instruments would have the potential to increase the benefits for the population as a whole.