BELLUNO – Marmolada still at the center of the battles between the Belluno area and Trentino. This time not over the borders, a battle on which after several sentences the two sides remain in their positions. But for the epic war season that opened with appeals and stamped papers on the cableways. While the dispute over the concession of the glacier to the company Marmolada Srl, which manages the Malga Ciapela plant, in the Belluno municipality of Rocca Pietore, is pending at the Superior Water Tribunal, another case breaks out. «The Municipality of Canazei and the Autonomous Province of Trento could not deny authorization for the replacement of the old one chair lift “Sass de Mul”, in the Trentino area”. The company that operates in the Belluno area Marmolada srl (based in Bolzano) says this in a press release: now with an appeal to the Regional Administrative Court of Trento, asks the two entities for damages of 8 and a half million euros. «It was a system also foreseen by the provincial urban planning, as reiterated by the Council of State: that no was illegitimate. We have suffered considerable economic damage, which must now be repaired”, say the company that has managed the cable car leading to Punta Rocca since 1965.
The chairlift issue
The request was replace the now obsolete chairlift with fixed attachment Sass Del Mul-Serauta, with a new system, given that the one was obsolete and no longer responsive to the needs of the winter ski tourism market. An issue that erupted again seventeen years ago, when the Municipality of Canazei and the Province of Trento responded scathingly to the request of the Marmolada company. Now it emerges that that denial could not have been given.
History
But let’s go in order. It was 2007 when Marmolada srl asked the Autonomous Province of Trento and the Municipality of Canazei for the first time for authorization to replace the old “Sass del Mul” ski lift, which had been decommissioned a year earlier. «It was and still is a facility of fundamental importance for extending the ski season, because it guarantees the possibility of always skiing at high altitude without having to go down to the Malga Ciapela station and then go back up», explain the Belluno company. The request is therefore clear, but for ten years the Autonomous Province and the Municipality of Canazei did not give any definitive answer. Marmolada srl itself speaks of “continuous reminders and interlocutory responses” and this until 2017 when the two entities opted for no. In the meantime, however, the Autonomous Province itself, through the so-called “Marmolada Programme” which is part of the provincial urban planning, defines the plant as “existing to be renewed”. Not only that: the Veneto Region already admitted it as a possible contribution in 2013. One is born administrative litigation which reaches the Council of State which with a ruling of 2023 declares that the Province and the Municipality could not deny the authorization, neither on the assumption of the lack of the urban planning compliance requirement because the plant was not foreseen by the general master plan of Canazei, nor for the failure to stipulate a program agreement between the Pat and the Region. Hence the request for compensation for damages, which takes into account the increase in costs for the construction of the plant and the lost management revenue.
The society
“It is a paradoxical affair that we hope can be remedied: our request was evidently legitimate”, underline the company, which is now awaiting the TAR’s verdict. «It is sad to note that damage has been caused to a reality that has kept the Marmolada alive for years, promoting its beauty and its immense historical and human heritage. If the massif and its valleys – both on the Belluno and Trentino sides – can grow in a sustainable way, it is also thanks to our work and that of our many collaborators”, the conclusion.
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