Português
EnglishThe Metropolitan Region of Belo Horizonte – established in 1973 by the Complementary Law nº 14, also created the metropolitan regions of São Paulo, Porto Alegre, Recife, Salvador, Curitiba, Belém and Fortaleza. 14 municipalities originally composed the RMBH: Belo Horizonte, Betim, Caeté, Contagem, Ibirité, Lagoa Santa, Nova Lima, Pedro Leopoldo, and Raposos, Ribeirão das Neves, Rio Acima, Sabará, Santa Luzia, and Vespasiano. In 1974 appears the managerial institution of the RMBH as a state autarchy, the Superintendence for the Development of the Metropolitan Region of Belo Horizonte – PLAMBEL, which emerged from the technical team of the João Pinheiro Foundation, who was responsible for the Metropolitan Plan of Belo Horizonte. The PLAMBEL, extinct in 1996, was responsible for a rich and extensive experience of integrated planning because of its high technic level diagnoses and plans as well as the training of a generation of still active planners in the RMBH. Yet, the current metropolitan planning of the time carried the excessive centralism and authoritarianism, with no open space for the effective participation of the municipalities nor the civil society.
In 1989, the State Constitution of Minas Gerais inserted the municipalities of Brumadinho, Esmeraldas, Igarapé and Mateus Leme into the RMBH, besides introducing the Metropolitan Belt. In 1993, a complementary law formalized the inclusion of the already named municipalities and also Juatuba and São José da Lapa – recently emancipated districts. In 1997, six other municipalities became part of the RMBH – Florestal, Rio Manso and the emancipated districts of Confins, Mário Campos, São Joaquim de Bicas and Sarzedo. In 2000, joined the RMBH the cities of Baldim, Capim Branco, Jaboticatubas, Taquaraçu de Minas, Itaguara, Matozinhos, and Nova União. Finally, in 2002, Itatiaiuçu became part of the RMBH. The Metropolitan Belt is nowadays compose by 14 municipalities surrounding the RMBH: Barão de Cocais, Belo Vale, Bonfim, Fortuna de Minas, Funilândia, Inhaúma, Itabirito, Itaúna, Moeda, Pará de Minas, Prudente de Morais, Santa Bárbara, São José da Varginha e Sete Lagoas.
Given the space left by the extinction of the PLAMBEL, the Government of the State decided to begin a new model of metropolitan management in 2004 after a wide process of public discussion. In 2006, with the approval of the Complementary Laws 88, 89 and 90, a new institutional organization for managing and planning of the Metropolitan Regions of Belo Horizonte and Vale do Aço began. The organizations selected for managing the RMBH were the Metropolitan Assembly and the Deliberative Council for the Metropolitan Development (established in 2007 during the I Metropolitan Conference), and as technical and planning support the Agency for the Metropolitan Development – RMBH Agency (created in 2009). There were also defined the tools for the metropolitan management, which work as two pillars of the system – one for planning, the Main Plan of Integrated Development – PDDI-RMBH, or the Metropolitan Plan, and another financial one, the Fund for the Metropolitan Development.
This new arrangement is being solidified and the metropolitan planning process for the long run relies on more democratic, participative and inclusive bases than the previous model, seeking the transformation of the RMBH into a more fair, dynamic and sustainable metropolis.
