São Paulo Metro alters Line 20-Rosa route amid heritage disputes

The São Paulo Metro has modified the planning for Line 20-Rosa, deciding to omit three planned stations on Avenida Brigadeiro Faria Lima—Pedroso de Morais, Faria Lima, and Rebouças—in favor of a route through the Jardins and Pinheiros neighborhoods. The Metro administration stated that this change reduces total costs from R$ 26.1 billion to R$ 24.9 billion and shortens construction time, despite a slight decrease in daily passenger numbers.

Local associations, including AME Jardins, have contested the decision, arguing that the new route will impact protected heritage areas and create a “metro desert” on Faria Lima, where users must travel 2.5 kilometers between the nearest stations.

In a related legal development, the Court of Justice of São Paulo (TJ-SP) unanimously upheld the annulment of a heritage protection revision that would have allowed the construction of multi-family residential buildings up to 10 meters high in the Jardins area. The court ruled that the State Council for the Defense of Historical, Archaeological, Artistic and Tourist Heritage (Condephaat) failed to follow proper procedural requirements when approving the change. This decision maintains the current restrictions that limit the area to single-family homes to preserve its “garden neighborhood” characteristics.