Manerba Fortress Park Project Advances with New Implementation Plan
The Fortress of Manerba regains prominence on the Garda scene with what can be considered the first step towards the realization of the park project: a project aimed at enhancing and promoting tourism in an area of 900,000 square meters, currently designated as a municipal park of supra-municipal interest, developed several months ago, but which still needed an initial implementation tool to start materializing seriously.
Indeed, this tool was adopted on Friday evening by the municipal council: essentially, it is an implementation plan regulating all types of urban activity within the park, setting the necessary standards to manage any intervention in this delicate zone of significant environmental, faunal, and archaeological value.
This document, in essence, contains the rules needed to begin seriously considering transforming the Fortress of Manerba park into a fully equipped and organized area according to a specific model, already studied and formalized in a project presented last year.
The model and financial issues
The model envisioned by the administration is that of an equipped park featuring paths, resting and refreshment areas, designed to accommodate no more than 100,000 visitors per year. It would include designated entry and exit points, and once completed, the access would become paid.
The realization of this project, however, cannot be considered imminent, as the financial resources are still to be secured: the administration is evaluating at an institutional level, both with the Regione Lombardia and the European Union, the existence of funds related to environmental redevelopment that could be accessed. Nevertheless, the project’s funding issue remains unresolved, as does the management of the park (the idea of establishing a Forestry Consortium including the Municipality and private landowners is still under consideration).
“Certainly, however, the adoption of the implementation plan marks the concretization of the necessary instrument to take the first steps in this direction — says Mayor Isidoro Bertini — Any intervention within the park area will be governed by this plan,”.
The contents of the plan
What are the contents of the document? “First and foremost, it should be noted that the plan has been divided into various subzones,” explains the mayor. “There will be especially delicate and valuable areas where no interventions are permitted, except for maintenance work. Other areas will allow for the construction of structures necessary for the future park.”
Bertini also explains that property owners will no longer be able, as they did controversially a couple of years ago, to erect fences without authorization.
The plan also regulates the potential development of paths, parking and rest areas, entrance and exit zones, and all other modifications that might be necessary once the park becomes a paid-entry equipped area.
For some houses within the area (no more than 3 or 4 buildings), small extensions will be permitted for sanitary and hygienic adjustments (approximately 50 square meters per residence).
It is also worth noting that during Friday’s council meeting, the color scheme plan was adopted, which governs the painting of buildings in the historic center to harmonize visual impact and restore the area’s characteristic appearance. Anyone who in the future wishes to undertake exterior painting modifications of a building must obtain prior authorization from the Municipality.
