On one side economic development. On the other, environmental protection. And in the middle the attempt, or rather the necessity, to keep both aspects together. It can be summed up in this like the “Ali case” which, for almost two years now, has been stirring up the political debate, and not only, in the city of the Saint.
The chronicle
It all begins in September 2021, when the company headed by the Canella family (117 supermarkets including Veneto and Emilia Romagna, over 4,700 employees and around one and a half billion euros in turnover) presents to the Municipality of Padua, led by a centre-left council led by the (civic) mayor Sergio Giordani, the request to expand from 50 thousand to 200 thousand square meters of its own logistics center in via Swedish, on the edge of the industrial area, in the Granze di Camin area. The request, specifically, is filed with Suap, the one-stop shop for productive activities, given that the latter, thanks to a specific regional lawprovides for a more streamlined administrative process as well as the possibility of proceeding in derogation from the Intervention Plan, what was once called the Regulatory Plan, as it concerns an expansion of a production site and not a new construction. And it matters little if the intervention assumes a volume of over 700 thousand cubic meters. As always happens in these cases, an ad hoc Services Conference is established, which takes nine months to analyze the legitimacy of Ali’s projectto then approve it, unanimously, in June 2022, precisely in the days in which Giordani, former administrator of the Despar supermarket chain (the Canella family’s first competitor), he was re-elected mayor, winning in the first round against the (civic) centre-right candidate Francesco Peghin, now president of Calcio Padova.
The Coalition’s “no”.
On the final minutes of the just mentioned Services Conference, among many, there are the signatures of the Municipality, the Province, the Region, the firefighters, the ARPAV and the Local Health Authority 6 Euganea. And it is precisely with the publication of this report that the discussion, inside and outside the gates of the town hall, is starting to heat up, if only because the final approval of Ali’s project lies with the town council. And the first to agitate, together with the residents of Granze di Camin and the activists of Legambiente, are the exponents of the Civic Coalition, the most left-wing group of the majority, who continually repeat: «We won the elections by promising a stop to land consumption and therefore we cannot say we agree with an operation that plans to transform an area of 150 thousand square meters from agricultural to buildable”.
The last 20 days
Time passes, the resolution necessary to ratify the expansion of the logistics center is slow to reach the parliament citizen and councilors (majority) those who intend not to express themselves in favor are increasing. In fact, those of the Civic Coalition are joined by some from the Democratic Party and the Giordani List, so much so that, when Ali’s project will land in the chamber (perhaps next May 27th), the mayor may need some votes from the opposition to give the decisive okay, perhaps starting with that of his (former) opponent Peghin, who, as an entrepreneur and former boss of the Industrialists from Padua, he was openly supportive, effectively splitting its front in turn, that of the centre-right, intending to say no so as not to act as a crutch for the council. And in the meantime, while the economic categories are lining up in support of the intervention (“Without investments of this kind, Padua would die”, highlight Confindustria, Ascom and Confesercenti), Alì makes it known that the operation, which would guarantee an income of 100 million, has many green implications, including the greening of five hectares and the planting of over 2,500 trees. And if the favorable voices outside the economic categories, at least for the moment, they struggle to feel, the no front says: «It’s time to say enough to overbuilding». How will it end? We will know, perhaps, in about twenty days.
