Galliate could block the way for Novara Ecologistica

The road that should lead to the expansion of the CIM of Novara, or to be more precise, to the new settlement known as Novara Ecologistica, seems to have taken a completely unexpected climb. With the last local elections in June 2024 there was a change of majority in the Galliate municipal council where the team led by the new mayor Alberto Cantone prevailed. Among the essential points indicated in the electoral program was a negative evaluation of the project to expand the logistics area.

The territory of Galliate is marginally affected by the Novara Ecologistica structure, but being formally involved, is required to express its position on the draft settlement planning agreement. While waiting for the decision to be taken at Government and Council level, in his first public statements, Mayor Cantone, in line with his electoral programme, confirmed his opposition to the project.

The agreement scheme, proposed by CIM, the interport centre, and by Develog, a company specialized in the development of logistics settlements, has already been signed by the Piedmont Region, the Province and, despite the bitter political controversies on the eve, also by the Municipality of Novara. The new structure is located mainly in the territory of Pernate, a fraction of Novara despite having four thousand inhabitants, on the border with Galliate.

The news of the change of majority in Galliate was greeted with satisfaction by the local Committee who fought against the settlement from the beginning, leaving no initiative unturned to achieve this result, including the appeal to the TAR. According to the inhabitants of the Pernate hamlet, at this point, Galliate’s opposition is seen as an opportunity to be used as leverage to block the project.

In the appeal to administrative justice, the Committee had contested the characteristics of the settlement which provides for the construction of other warehouses up to twenty metres and close to the homes of the hamlet which would be entirely surrounded by the logistics hub, whose dimensions are larger than the entire urban area of ​​Pernate. The project proposed by Develog is contested for the choice of only façade environmental mitigation with a green crown made up of trees and shrubs which would however completely remove the panoramic view of the territory.

Moreover, the size of the settlement is not irrelevant: on a total area of ​​over one million square meters the construction of four commercial real estate units for a covered area of ​​247 thousand square metres. In the government plan for the territory of the Municipality of Novara, well before the presentation of the Cim and Develog project, the transformation from an agricultural area to commercial settlement functions was already envisaged.

Piermario Curti Sacchi