Lonato Faces Unconstitutional Zoning Law Ruling Impacting Development and Citizens
More than a tile, it would be better to talk about a boulder falling on the head of the Lonato municipal administration; but also on the citizens and enterprises. We are talking about a ruling by the **Constitutional Court**, which, through a session presided over by Cesare Mirabelli, and with a judgment issued last November 18th that examined several cases regarding the illegitimacy of certain articles of Law 499 of December 1997 (for clarity, this is the Financial Law), declared invalid the provision that considered approved the zoning plans adopted with the principle of silence-as-approval. A principle that, as we recall, was exploited by the old Mantovani administration to pass its own Zoning Plan. The **Supreme Court** thus accepted the unconstitutionality claims against some articles of the December ’97 law raised by the regions of Piemonte, Lombardia, and Veneto. But beyond the legal debates, which we will obviously skip here, the ruling will have effects that are nothing short of severe.
Impact on Urban Planning and Citizens
In light of this ruling, Lonato effectively finds itself without a zoning plan. It’s as if we have gone back twenty years. In theory, hundreds of citizens, artisans, industrialists, and real estate developers who have been able to build over the past three years now suddenly find themselves without a roof over their heads. However, that won’t be the actual outcome, because it is unlikely that the Region will intervene with any oppressive regulation to target the hundreds of people previously mentioned. People who, in good faith, had requested and obtained a building permit from the Municipality based on the existence of the Zoning Plan.
Instead, all those who, based on the current urban tool now nullified, were awaiting their building permits, or worse, the go-ahead to start construction, will have to wait. This is not a small number of people. For example, a municipal councilor recalls that the hypermarket of Campagnoli could have to put everything into question; but also many artisans who requested to expand or acquire areas in the industrial zone or in the new Centenaro zone, and dozens of construction companies.
And it doesn’t end there. The same councilor recalls, for example, the case of citizens who paid tens of millions of Ici taxes for areas that were previously agricultural and later became developable due to the Zoning Plan. In short, a chain of troubles that seems unstoppable. The former Lega Nord mayor, Manlio Mantovani, was taken aback upon hearing the news. “Really? I had no idea. At the moment I can’t issue any statements; I need to read the ruling first, then we’ll see…”. On a different note, the current mayor, Morando Perini, commented: “We’ve already scheduled a meeting this afternoon (yesterday for our readers) with technical staff and our legal advisors to understand the immediate effects on citizens. I have a strong feeling that the consequences could be disastrous. We have gone back to 1976, to the very old manufacturing plan. This is not the right occasion” – Perini continues – “to contest the serious responsibilities of the old Lega Nord administration led by Mantovani; we can only assure that we intend to reach a definitive solution to the problem as soon as possible.”
And what about the citizens who built according to that now-vacated Zoning Plan? “We will neither ask anything of them nor of the companies, because if they’ve built, they did so in good faith. What worries us is the future, as I have immediately ordered that the Building Commission and the land subdivision plans be halted until further notice: we have also contacted the Region, and a first meeting should take place shortly”.
As is remembered, the principle of silence-as-approval was adopted by the Municipality of Lonato after its own Zoning Plan, transmitted to the Region, was not approved within the 180 days set by a law decree. The incident unfolded between 1995 and 1996, within a period when the decree was repeatedly extended but never converted into law. The Tar (Administrative Regional Tribunal) and the Council of State initially sided with the Municipality of Lonato, and therefore the former mayor regarded the urban planning instrument as approved. It was a break with the Pirellone (referring to the Lombardy Regional Government), a unique occurrence in Italy. The decision was supported by both legal opinions and rulings from administrative courts. But after four years, those rulings dissolved like snow in the sun.