Crucial turning point in the long battle of stamped papers between the inhabitants of Old Bussana, the Municipality of Sanremo and the State Property. The Council of State annulled the TAR ruling of 14 March 2023 which had declared the appeal presented by the residents inadmissible. Therefore, the passage of the Valorization Plan of the Municipality of Sanremo (approved on 29 November 2017) was cancelled, in the part in which they wanted to exclude residents who were not willing to pay from the housing assignment procedure 10 years compensation for illegal occupation.
The document from the Council of State states that “the specific clause of the program act is immediately harmful to the appellantsas it places them in the alternative of whether to pay the sums requested or renounce participation in the program, it is also disproportionate and characterized by a deviation from the objectives of the contested act”.
And then: “The valorization program contains a specific reference to the Bussana Vecchia Community, highlighting the need to sharing the objectives and projects for the enhancement and recovery of the village with the inhabitants, the community of artists, the managers of economic activities, as an indispensable element for the development and implementation of the program in a participatory and transparent way and, ultimately, “for the management of Bussana, its spaces, activities and/or functions defined in this program to allow the tourist promotion of the ancient nucleus and its territorial context”. This general indication highlights the need for involvement of the inhabitants in the valorisation of village in correct application of the general principle of horizontal subsidiarity which regulates the relationship between private initiative and public intervention and enhances private interventions aimed at satisfying interests worthy of protection. There is no doubt that the community of artists has laid the foundations for the recovery and valorization of the ancient and abandoned village, creating the conditions for the current valorization program. The public entities, which have therefore benefited from the horizontal subsidiarity intervention of the community of artists, cannot contradictorily and in violation of the further principle of loyal collaboration between public administrations and private individuals exclude from the program and from the possibility of participating in the foreseen tenders for the concession and management of the assets of precisely those subjects (and their successors in title) who have made the development of the village possible, where they fail to pay ten years of compensation to the State for the claimed occupation: compensation of which, moreover, the appellants assume illegitimacy as they are set at inconsistent values, in alleged violation of the five-year prescription and without any consideration of the costs incurred by the inhabitants for the reconstruction and maintenance of the village”.
“The specific clause in question does not, therefore, have a merely programmatic and abstract nature, as it is immediately harmful to the position of the occupants of the buildings, so that, contrary to what the Municipality has objected to, there is a current and concrete interest in its challenge, without it being necessary to wait for the next implementing measure – we read again in the ruling of the Council of State – it must, however, be observed that the lack of jurisdiction over compensation presupposes an equal position between the parties and the Public Administration cannot recover an authoritative position through this clause without even evaluating the possible right to compensation for any improvements carried out on the properties of the village by the community of artists of Bussana and its inhabitants, the which, as already highlighted, have preserved over time the characteristics determining the declaration of historical and cultural interest of the property by the Administration. In conclusion, the appeal must be accepted and, therefore, in reforming the contested sentence, the first instance appeal must be declared admissible and accepted in part, in the sense indicated above, limited to the clause of the valorisation program which, by making participation in future tenders subject to the payment of employment allowances, is for the reasons set out above, it is illegitimate and must be annulled. In future calls for implementation of the valorisation programme, therefore, the Municipality not only will not be able to exclude those who do not pay, but will also have to take into careful consideration the position of the Bussanesi who directly, or through their predecessors, have rebuilt the village with that horizontal subsidiarity intervention that the Public Authorities intend to take advantage of”.
The story that sees Bussana Vecchia and its inhabitants at the center is long and complex, made up of meetings, documents, appeals and a wall against wall that has now been handed down from administration to administration.
The last act was the inclusion in the Valorization Plan drawn up by the Municipality of Sanremo of the clause which provided for the payment of 10 years of compensation considering as “illegal” the residents of the village who had lived in the abandoned houses, renovating them, fixing them up and making them habitable. A proposal that had triggered the obvious reaction from the inhabitants with the appeal to the TAR first declared inadmissible and today, in fact, overturned by the ruling of the Council of State.
The position is clear: if the Municipality wants to get involved in Bussana Vecchia not only will it not be able to ask for compensation for participation in the Valorisation Programme, but it will also have to involve the inhabitants.
