The distance meter regulations applied in the Municipality of Imola are legitimate and, therefore, must be respected. This was established, reports Agipronews, by the Emilia Regional Administrative Court with a ruling which rejected the appeal of a gaming operator who owns two halls (in via Odofredo II and in via San Vitale) within the municipal territory. In 2018 the appellant was notified of the closure of the premises, as too close to several sensitive places (a church, a gym, a school and a library), established by the 2013 regional law and identified by the 2017 mapping. The Administration was accused of lacking support in identifying “practicable alternative solutions” to proceed with the “dislocation of activities”, as, according to the appellant, they were not “given knowing which areas of the territory would be where the exercise should migrate”, “in consideration of the massive presence of sensitive places”. Furthermore, the sensitive places involved in the specific case would not have been specified, and the action would have led to an expulsion effect from the territory, harmful to the economic interests of the operator. The Administrative Court notes that these circumstances do not exist: the Municipality of Imola brought to the attention of the parties that in the municipal territory “there would be large built-up areas where it would be possible to relocate these activities without falling into any prohibition on proximity to sensitive points : in particular, throughout the northern part of the city”. After a verification carried out in 2023, it was ascertained that this reading corresponds to the truth: in the northern area of the city there is an area equal to 18.3% of the entire municipal territory, “without sensitive and uninhabitable places”. This is a surface area greater than 1% which jurisprudence considers to be an indispensable minimum and, therefore, the complained of expulsive effect does not occur. For this reason, the TAR rejected the appeal.
