RAGUSA – Engineers from Sicily gathered in the theaters of Modica and Ragusa Ibla to take stock of the evolution of the profession and to address regional needs on existing critical issues. From the debate – moderated by the journalist Mario Barresi – the urgency of orienting Sicilian urban planning towards new directions emerged. The 2024 Assize organized on Friday 31 May and Saturday 1 June by the Regional Council of the Orders of Engineers of Sicily involved professionals and institutions who, between warnings and results achieved in synergy, set the next stages: with the drafting of the Regional Territorial Plan, already underway, after decades of waiting, a decisive impulse will be given to the Island’s Municipalities to equip themselves with a PUG with a common alignment and vision, and since almost all of them lack a General Urban Plan, having the same control room would allow strategic and sustainable development in all territories, regulating protection, transformation and building development activities, in line with the European principles on low land consumption and tending towards zero.
«From this Assize 2024 in Sicily – he explained Fabio Corvo, president of the Regional Council of the Orders of Engineers – the need emerges to act on fair compensation and to define the drafting of the Regional Territorial Plan, because it can certainly be a stimulus for the Municipalities, almost all of which do not have a PUG. With the PTR we would have more stringent terms for local planning, regulation, general control, and an overall vision to overcome Sicily’s problems. Clearly the PTR already sees us at work, we will be alongside the institutions in the coming months for the consultation at the invitation of the Environment Councilor Elena Pagana. We want to turn our attention to urban planning, trying to strengthen it with a view to development: after the bonuses and PNRR funds that have characterized professional activities for several years, we want to build and live more beautiful, smart, human-scale cities, and we are proud to have rewarded the under 40 engineers who have already dealt with this subject, which has now become a niche, with high level results: their excellent contributions have a high value for the whole of Sicily”.
Within the 2024 Assembly, organized in synergy with theOrder of Engineers of Ragusa And Carmelo Lucifora president of the Territorial Council of Ragusa and vice-president of the Consulta, the meeting was held Awards ceremony of two engineers – Nino Vicari and Francesco Papale – who have made significant contributions to Sicilian urban planning and the prizes were awarded to the young engineers under 40 who won the first tender announced by the Consulta Orders of Engineers of Sicily and by the Regional Center for Urbanistic Studies of Sicily CERSU with two sessions: works of literature and urban planning projects. The works of the winners were exhibited at the Garibaldi Theater in Modica.
«The thirty-year wait for an update of the law on urban planning in Sicily – he highlighted Giuseppe Trombino, president of CERSU – has led to the distancing of engineers from a fundamental subject for the category. We want to (re)give impetus to the topic: the best way to relaunch the debate on urban planning is to involve young people with their innovative know-how; during the 2024 Assizes we did this by awarding some prizes to under-40 professionals.”
«At a national level, over the years, urban planning has become the prerogative of other professions that are clearly entitled to it, but tend to exclude engineers – he underlined Giuseppe Maria Margiotta, secretary of the CNI – in fact we engineers have a wealth of historical, professional, technical and cultural skills on urban planning, which during this 2024 Assembly we reaffirmed in front of the authoritative presence of the institutions. Following the update of regional law 7178, today we find ourselves with problems apparently overcome by the legislation, because the implementation tools are missing: having a Regional Territorial Plan in Sicily means giving the framework and contents to municipal urban planning plans, we would have a clear logic for the planning we have been waiting for for decades. Involving young professionals in the urban planning field, new resources trained in step with the times who do not live only on memory, gives us good hope for the future.”
«Politics must listen to professionals, because they live and know the problems, they are the only ones who can suggest solutions – he explained Elena Pagana, regional councilor for Territory and Environment – the PTR is a great challenge to which we were called with the 2020 urban planning reform: a novelty for the Sicilian Region, but also in the national panorama, because it incorporates multiple levels of territorial protection. The PTR brings out the true vocation of Sicily by taking into account the diversity and potential of the various territories of our magnificent island in the heart of the Mediterranean. The warning from the 2024 Assizes on the regulatory framework is due, but caution is needed considering the specialty of the Sicilian Region. We have proposed an amendment bill to resolve unclear issues and to speed up territorial planning. Equipping ourselves with the new PUG tool means transposing the European principles on low land consumption and tending towards zero, principles that are part of the sustainable development strategy. of the Island”.
The 2024 Assembly concluded at the Donnafugata Theater in Ragusa Ibla with the reports of the president Fabio Corvo, the approvals of the final and budgetary budgets and the planning of the activities to be implemented in the near future.
