The Milan strikes a blow and emerges victorious from the first round on the appeal presented by 13 citizens of San Donato Milanese And Chiaravalle – supported by “No Stadium in San Donato Milanese” Committee and assisted by a pool of lawyers –, with the aim of ask for cancellation of the acts adopted by the municipal administration in favor of construction of the Milan stadium in the area Saint Francis in San Donato Milanese.
Milan TAR ruling on new stadium – The appellants’ requests
The TAR today published the first sentence in relation to the complaint presented by the citizens, which they requested the cancellation:
- from the Resolution of the Municipal Council of San Donato Milanese n. 15 of 01/24/2024, published on 25 January 2024 with the subject: “Initial proposal for an urban planning variant for the implementation of an urban transformation intervention of a sporting nature (AC Milan Stadium) with supra-municipal relevance – favorable evaluation of practicability”;
- of the Implementation Plan (Integrated Intervention Program) approved by the Municipal Administration, aimed at allowing the creation of a sporting settlement project with the location of a Sports Arena (new AC Milan stadium) with a capacity of approximately 70,000 seats and annexed and complementary structures which, due to specific characteristics, needs and purposes, in addition to constituting an intervention of supra-municipal importance, it also involves a variation to the general instrument of Territorial Government (PGT) and provides for significant public works and infrastructures of public utility, cited in Council resolution no. 15 of 01/24/2024 and published on 25 January 2024, unknown acts and details;
- of the Preliminary technical analysis document for the purposes of verifying the feasibility of the proposal Attachment 1 to DG 15/2024;
- as well as any other related actprerequisite and/or consequential, even in the unknown state, AS WELL AS FOR THE CONDEMNATION OF THE ADMINISTRATION TO EXHIBIT THE FOLLOWING DOCUMENTS – request for variant proposal presented by SportLifeCity Srl on 09.28.2023, as well as all the related attachments in the unknown state known;
- power of attorney of the Consortium to SportLifeCity mentioned in the letter dated 04.01.2024, known to the undersigned defense as cited in the preliminary technical analysis document for the purposes of verifying the feasibility of the proposal Attachment 1 to DG 15/2024.
Milan TAR ruling on new stadium – The decision of the Second Section
«The exponents – we read in the resolution – they are residents in the Municipality of San Donato Milanese (MI) and with the appeal in the epigraph they challenged the documents relating to an urban planning variant of a sporting nature and an implementation plan for the construction of a new sports structure, namely the AC Milan stadium. The appeal contains a request to show a series of documents relating to the aforementioned intervention».
Both the Municipality and the company proposing the intervention plan, namely SportLifeCity Srl, were formed. The first hearing was scheduled for 4 June 2024 and was postponed – as revealed by Football and Finance – to the June 18, 2024in light of the documentary production carried out by the other interested party.
The Municipality, in its defense documents, «he stated several times that have already made available of some of the appellants the documentation requested by them here; however, since this is a very copious documentation, the Administration has set up a special “Link” which can be accessed to read the documents and their attachments. This “Link” is included in the Municipality’s defense briefs, most recently the one filed in view of the hearing on 18.6.2024», we read in the sentence.
«The counter-interested company, for its part, with a note dated 3.6.2024 also filed a series of documents in court, including the power of attorney dated 30.5.2017 issued in its favor by Asio Srl. Despite this, the defender of the exponents did not he considered himself satisfied and also during the hearing on 18.6.2024 he insisted on the condemnation of the Municipality to the release of the document constituted by the Consortium’s power of attorney to SportCityLife mentioned in the documents of the case, “with evidence of the attachment thereof to the request”».
At the same hearing, the Municipality’s defender declared that all the requested documentation was produced or otherwise made available on the Administration’s website and that there is no document highlighting the attachment of the power of attorney in favor of SportCityLife to the request, as requested instead. by the exponents.
«About this – specifies the TAR – remember that the request for document access concerns exclusively documents that are in the possession of the Administration and cannot in any case be transformed into a sort of control of administrative operations nor can it force the Administration itself to form new acts».
Consequently, the Board considered that the request for documentary access had already been satisfied and that no proof had been offered of the existence of other documents which would instead have been unduly denied access. For this reason, the «Regional Administrative Court for Lombardy (Second Section) declares the application inadmissible of access contained in the appeal in the epigraph».
