Arco Plans New Underground Parking to Address City Center Congestion
It is a wasted effort for the group of traders and residents of the historic city center to study ways to multiply the parking spaces in the former Carmellini area. The municipal authorities of Arco, headed by Councillor Sergio Dellanna, simply do not listen to those concerns. Instead, they are moving forward to resolve the issue with a well-organized and rational parking plan.
Parking Projects and Urban Planning Interventions
If any obstacles of whatsoever nature do not hinder them, the Comune (Municipality) believes it can realize, within a few years, three parking areas, two of which will be underground. These will be located under Viale delle Palme (with 300 to 400 spaces), in Caneve (also around the same number, but on the surface), and finally beneath Foro Boario.
This last option is not at all dismissed, says the urban planning councillor, but only scaled down and primarily aimed at satisfying requests for parking spaces associated with properties. In other words: the Comune will build only if residents and local businesses commit to purchasing the approximately one hundred parking spots or garages that will be created.
PRG Variants and Foro Boario Redevelopment
This time, the Veronesi administration seems serious. In September, Dellanna will present to the municipal council the variants to the PRG (Piano Regolatore Generale / General Town Plan) that also include the redevelopment plan for Foro Boario. After demolishing the fire station, the area will be expanded and designated for public green space, a mobile market, and parking facilities.
Along with the demolition of the fire station, the Caneve services center (civil protection, warehouse, and municipal yard) must be made available. Adjacent to it, there are plans to build a large surface parking lot, connected by a second pedestrian footbridge over the Sarca River.
Regarding those who contest the functionality of this area, Dellanna points out that the distance from the city center is no greater than that between the offices of the municipal technical departments and Piazza Tre Novembre. The issues are elsewhere, the urban planning councillor adds.
Parking Problems and Projects in Viale delle Palme
In Viale delle Palme, first of all: “First: we must formally approve the project by October 31. Second: we must ensure that the company covering part of the construction costs benefits from it, as it will be co-owner of the silo (with a 51% stake, as per the law on public-private cooperation related to the 5 billion euros in state funding granted to the Comune di Arco, ed). This company will then manage it, through the creation of a sufficient number of paid parking spaces.
The “Gentilini” company from Trento, the SPA that presented the preliminary underground project on June 30, initially asked for a real estate consideration, and after our negative response, requested around 180 paid parking spaces, already existing ones, of course.” Forget restoring the time restrictions at the Casinò and Foro Boario, as the center’s merchants demand!
“If we want to implement the project using those 5 billion euros,” Dellanna explains, “these are the conditions. On the other hand, solving the parking issue is not easy, as the traders believe. It’s not enough to erect a concrete skeleton in the Carmellini area, right under the Castello rock, because it would spoil a strategically scenic area.”
