However for the city of Petrópolis, originally founded by Pedro I as a place for his summer palace, this was not to occur when the largest company in the area Petropolitana, ironically owned by Jose Soares Maciel Filho, the same owner of the Alcobaça Farm, went out of business.

To pay debts, the land was bought by a housing developer who planned to build between 1500-2500 houses, which would have destroyed a vital source of fresh water for the local community.  

thanks to the tireless dedication of the people of the Cascatinha neighborhood,  who fought to have the local springs and section of the Atlantic Forest preserved the reserve as we now know it was eventually realized.