O Plano Diretor no ordenamento jurídico brasileiro: Plano Diretor decenal da cidade do Rio de Janeiro como caso de referência

Abstract

This paper addresses relevant legal issue for Brazilian cities. Although the standards issued and the efforts undertaken by the Government in the implementation of urban policy in recent years, new concepts of urban law lack clarity, especially with regard to urban plan. Techniques were developed in order to turn the real city into the ideal city, making the master plan their primary instrument. Since the 1988 Federal Constitution the master plan, an institute brought from other branches of science to regulate the exercise of property rights and promote the development of the city, ensuring also the participation of society in creating, execution and control of urban planning, is under legal treatment. The limits of local government in establishing the city's development policy are based on the constitutional division of powers in urban matters and on the national law of urban policy. The Decennial Plan of the City of Rio de Janeiro, adopted in 1992, was taken as reference case to examine the city's master plan on the national legal scene. This choice is justified by the rich experience in dealing with urban gained along the natural trajectory of the city, which maintains it today as a national reference. We conclude that the Constitution gave the master plan the task of setting limits to the exercise of property rights whose content is defined according to the functions of the city. Finally, it defends the thesis that the master plan has the legal nature of programmatic law, standing on top of legislation, just below the Municipal Organic Law, imposing its observance by the ordinary legislator and administrator in the ongoing urban planning.