Chaos at Garda Ports as Court Rulings Disrupt Boat Slip Allocations
Chaotic situation at the municipal ports of Garda
While enthusiasts are already seen at work taking advantage of sunny days, at the Garda municipal ports there is a state of complete chaos regarding the assignment of boat slips. Not a day passes without a surprise, and it happens that slips already allocated to boat owners are being reconsidered, or need to be reallocated with modifications or new rankings. All this while, as noted, the boating season is reaching its peak.
Only one municipality, as far as is known, has so far regularized the concessions for boat slips, and is already collecting mooring fees: it is Sirmione. Everything around remains completely in the dark. Boat owners curse or regret the past: when the Port Inspectorate was operational, serving as the sole and well-established reference for boaters.
Furthermore, jurisprudence is complicating the matter. In recent days, for example, the Brescia Administrative Court (Tar di Brescia) ruled in favor of a Padenghe rental company (represented by lawyer Alberto Luppi) which was allocated only one boat slip instead of the five requested to dock its boats. The result? The municipality is now required to reformulate a new ranking, thus canceling all previous allocations. A near disaster.
Impacts and reactions to judicial decisions
It’s easy to imagine the anger of boat owners who had already anticipated a three-year concession, and now risk seeing it vanish with another lottery. While in Padenghe some celebrate (referring to Pierluigi Carminati, owner of the Nautica Garuti rental company), in Limone others are pulling their hair out.
This is the case of Luca Peroni and his father Romolo, owners of the company “Garda Escursioni“, which provides passenger transport services on behalf of third parties and lost an appeal to the Consiglio di Stato. What happened? The Limone municipality had also assigned only one marina space to rental companies, regardless of the number of boats owned and previous authorizations granted by the Region.
Peroni had obviously challenged this at the Tar, because two of their motorboats, 12 meters long and 4 meters wide, should have been allowed to remain in the port. The administrative judges sided with them, annulling the regulation. But they did not count on the municipality, which appealed to the Consiglio di Stato. The judges in Rome sided with the Municipal Executive, overturning the Tar’s judgment.
A significant setback for their business. It’s as if the Region decided overnight to cancel mooring spaces for the “Navigarda“, forcing them to remove their hydrofoils. The Peroni company provides a similar service: it is a protected activity under the navigation code and subsequent regulations.
Situations in Desenzano and elsewhere
In Desenzano, however, the situation hangs by a thread: a challenge to the relevant ranking by the commission will be filed at the Tar in the coming days. In Manerba, everything remains as it was. In Moniga, instead, a rental operator obtained six moorings, while the Port Inspectorate had only granted him one.
In short, a babel. On the Brescia side of Lake Garda, there are 28 public ports with 1,550 moorings; plus another 300-400 boat owners who transport their vessels on trailers every weekend. However, demand exceeds availability: about 500 moorings are needed which are not met.