“We fortunately learned, just a few days ago, that Saturday 27 April would be the last day to submit observations to the urban planning variation procedure to change the use of the Tardini stadium area. And, like all the citizens of Parma, we learned this without public notice of the start of this procedure having been given. We consider the behavior of the municipal administration of Parma very serious which, in a project of such impact, did not inform citizens that it had begun the variation procedures on 28 February: in fact, in the first 60 days all interested citizens had the opportunity to formulate environmental, health, territorial and urban planning observations capable of counterbalancing the priority objective of the private proponent, Parma Calcio, who presented a project that overturns the nature and consolidated vocation of that place from a commercial and speculative perspective functional to the interests of private society”.
Seventeen associations from Parma wrote this in a statement, underlining how the Municipality has “chosen to limit itself to publication in the praetorian notice board and in the Burer, the official bulletin of the Region: the bare minimum from a legal and formal point of view, but certainly insufficient politically for those who really want to be transparent and inform citizens. The administrators actually wanted to prevent popular participation, quietly proceeding with the definitive transformation of a central area of Parma. It is very serious that in these two months of declarations, interviews and press releases, given in large numbers by the administrators, none of them have ever spoken about it. They have all ‘forgotten’ about it, caught in a sort of collective oblivion. Only generic references to the need for a ‘future’ urban planning variant, effectively preventing citizens from expressing their opinion on the fate of the city”.
The associations, however, “presented 38 observations in time on the critical issues of the project to be submitted to the services conference on procedural, environmental and historical protection aspects. The observations would have been many more if the due and necessary information had been provided at the time of filing”.
Now the variant procedure will produce a new test for the Administration: “a vote in the City Council on the outcome of the Services Conference. We will also verify in that circumstance his actual desire to pursue the exclusive public interest”, conclude the Tardini Sostenibile Committee, Parma Città Pubblico, Manifattura Urbana, Legambiente Parma, Artetipi, Sodales, Des Parma – District of Solidarity Economy, OK Club, Amici del Boschi di Carrega Park and Casino, Sustainable Parma, Fruttorti di Parma, Nocargoparma, Ethical Parma, Fiab-Parma, WWF Parma, Environmental Women’s Association, Tuttimondi.
