Lamezia Terme – Monday 3 June will be a date to remember for Lamezia. After 22 years, in fact, the last “step” will take place for the creation of the “regional Retail Entertainment center” of the Icom company, better known as “Borgo Antico”. This is the name associated, since 2002, with an outlet shopping center owned by the Catanzaro entrepreneur, Floriano Noto. On Monday, therefore, barring unlikely surprises, the Lamezzo municipal council should approve the agreement which concerns the “sale of areas, execution of urbanization works and their maintenance, exchange of land for the construction of works under permit”. A “due act” after the sentences favorable to the Icom company.
The long story
The Icom company of Floriano Noto, after having purchased the land in via del Progresso, presented an application for a building permit to the Municipality of Lamezia Terme in 2002. In 2003, the Municipality governed by a triumvirate commissioner following the dissolution of the civic assembly, rejected the building permit. Therefore, Icom appealed to the TAR which in September 2004 decided to accept the appeal presented, canceling the resolution of the extraordinary Commission. Extraordinary commission which expressed a definitive favorable opinion for the realization of the project. However, before the definitive approval of the project, the Extraordinary Commission itself, in May 2004, blocked the procedure because instead of the simplified procedure the ordinary one would have had to be followed. Measure therefore revoked in self-defense. The TAR expressed its opinion on this step, again following an appeal from Icom, annulling the revocation. In January 2005 the Council of State rejected a precautionary request from the Municipality of Lamezia. In March 2005, the favorable opinion of all the authorities present at the Services Conference was obtained. Further request to build and another denial from the Municipality then led by the Speranza Administration which rejected the request as the Services Conference had not yet been defined. Another appeal by Noto to the TAR which, in 2006, accepted the requests of the Catanzaro entrepreneur. This was subsequently followed by a request for compensation of 53 million euros (upheld for 22 million). A “monstrous” figure that the Municipality appealed to the Council of State (2015) which accepted it. In 2017, Icom resubmitted a request to the Municipality based on the ruling of the Council of State, however in relation to the request to build. Finally, between 2022 and 2023, Icom obtains all the favorable opinions necessary for the creation of the “regional Retail Entertainment center”. That is, from the opinion of the Calabria Region, to the favorable opinions expressed by the Provincial Administration of Catanzaro-Landscape Sector-Urban Planning and Environment-Landscape Service and the Superintendency of Archaeology, Fine Arts and Landscape for the Provinces of Catanzaro and Crotone.
The Icom project
The project extends over a total territorial area of approximately 137,880 square metres, with intended use relating to commercial activities, supply of food and drinks to the public, para-commercial, services and/or similar activities (e.g. offices open to public, private offices, medical practices, etc.), and specifically:
Large type “B” sales structures = Usable surface area in square metres. 16,857.20; Medium sales structures = Usable surface area in square metres. 14,329.00; Retail commercial establishments = Usable surface area in square metres. 8,911.45; Para-commercial activities and/or service activities and/or similar (e.g. offices open to the public, private offices, medical practices, etc.) = Useful surface area in square metres. 4,408.54; Parking surfaces for public use 12,980 square meters; Green spaces for public use 17,600 square meters; Main road 9,500 square meters; 63,000 square meters of parking areas; Green spaces covering 2,450 square metres.
What does the Convention provide?
The Agreement which must be approved by the City Council on Monday 3 June, provides that the Icom company will have to create 9,500 square meters of main road which will connect Via del Progresso directly to the new Sports Hall and the nearby “Carlei” stadium; plus 12,960 square meters of parking spaces (the Municipality reserves the right, on the occasion of public events, sporting or otherwise, to be held in the area of the Sports Hall, to use them exclusively for users of the aforementioned events, even with physical delimitation through barriers with the exclusion of the main road, car parks for public use), 17,600 square meters of green surface, while the Municipality will give up the 1,452.59 square meters of remnants of the “Maida-Nicastro” municipal road, and the 941.31 square meters of relic of the “Rito” municipal road.
This is what was foreseen in the council resolution approved in recent weeks. And this, also, net of any additions of amendments, two of which have already been announced (Action and councilor Piccioni) which should be presented at the meeting of the City Council. A meeting preceded in these days, and in these hours, by the rekindling of controversies on the part of trade associations and some trade unions, who see in the creation of the “ancient village” the same “ghosts” already evoked in the 2000s, that is, the danger for the “death of commerce in the city”, or in any case they call for a new negotiation with Icom to ask for priority of jobs for citizens residing in the Lamezo area through the interlocution of the Municipality.
B.C
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