MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

No more buildings casting shadows on Rio beaches

The legislation is not retroactive, so the damage done will stay there, Councilman Duarte regretted

Rio de Janeiro Mayor Eduardo Paes signed this week a new law prohibiting the construction of any building that casts shadows on the city’s sand or boardwalks, a measure unanimously approved by the City Council last month.

The new piece of legislation closes a decades-old loophole that previously only restricted buildings located directly on the waterfront. Prior urban planning used the broad term “borderline,” which developers interpreted as applying only to the first row of buildings facing the ocean. This allowed for the approval of massive towers on secondary streets that still blocked sunlight, particularly during winter.

“Now it's law... it prohibits the construction of new buildings that may cast shadows on our city's

waterfront, whether on the boardwalk or on the sand,” said Councilman Pedro Duarte, who penned the bill. “New taller buildings are being built, but they cannot harm the collective good, such as our sand and our boardwalk.”

“All licenses for the waterfront and all licenses for the inner street will need to prove that they do not cause shade,” he further explained.

“Shading on the beachfront can occur in buildings on the beachfront itself, as well as on secondary streets,” Rio's Conselho de Arquitetura e Urbanismo do Rio de Janeiro (CAU/RJ) guild President Sydnei Menezes underscored. “The previous law only ensured the right to limit these buildings on the beachfront.

There was a double interpretation.” As a result, buildings consolidated through “distortion or lack of legislation throughout the history of Rio de Janeiro have no solution,” including a controversial 24-story development currently rising in Ipanema, since all legislation needs to be enacted before the fact.

“There has to be legal certainty, so what we are correcting is from now on,” Duarte regretted, noting that nothing could be done retroactively.