For legal purposes of soil planning the city is divided, basically, in urban area and rural area. However, this distinction is not so clear in everyday life, because it is observed an urban practice in the rural way of life, in the same measure that there is a tendency to rescue rural habits in urban, forming hybrid spaces. Thus, this classifi cation is becoming obsolete, which demands new administrative strategies, and which consider the heterogeneity of the spaces and ways of life of its residents. Above all, legislative changes are needed to recognize and endorse the formation of hybrid spaces. The consequences of the absence of this type of legislation can be observed when analyzing the resettlement process for the community of Gesteira, in the municipality of Barra Longa, Minas Gerais, aff ected by a major environmental disaster, in December 2015. To this end, without exhausting the subject, this article developed a theoretical-empirical research, using deductive and inductive methods, of applied nature and exploratory character. The approach was qualitative, with the use of technical procedures such as fi eld study (primary source), documentary and bibliographic research (secondary sources). The legal obstacles to the development of the resettlement process were identifi ed, which also subsidizes this discussion within the scope of public regulation
