Trial of the Milan model. The Prosecutor’s Office’s investigations into alleged building abuses in the construction of new buildings have reached ten. Starting from 2023 and in recent months they have popped up one after the other, in some cases the investigations are ongoing, in others they are already closed. But under the prosecutor’s lens there would be many more projects, much more than those that have emerged so far. There would be dozens: a real earthquake. The suspects, for crimes ranging from building abuse to abuse of office to forgery, are builders, designers and municipal officials.
The dossier is on the table of the Department of Health, Environment and Work Protection, led by the deputy prosecutor Tiziana Siciliano and entrusted to the prosecutors Paolo Filippini, Marina Petruzzella and Mauro Clerici who have entrusted the Financial Police with the investigations. Very often it all started with complaints from citizens dissatisfied with seeing a skyscraper pop up behind their house. The effects of the wave of files are different. Around 150 applications that have already arrived at the Municipality to request authorization for building interventions are stuck waiting for the issue to be resolved. All construction has come to a standstill: new requests to build in 2024 have halved and at Palazzo Marino collections from urbanization charges have collapsed. Due to what Mayor Beppe Sala calls “fear of signing” and due to the notices received by colleagues, as many as 140 employees of the Urban Planning sector have asked to be transferred to other offices. Last but not least, the investigators’ initiatives have opened a deep rift, unprecedented at least in the last decade, between the Prosecutor’s Office and the Administration.
In essence the disputes, which are almost photocopies of each other, support the illegitimacy of the building permits, signed by the municipal offices, in some cases committing forgery, and obtained by the builders with self-declarations (Scia or Cila) which are required for simple renovations or low impact works but on the contrary they have been used for new constructions and towers. The documents list alleged violations of the rules on the height and volume of buildings located in the courtyards. Above all, the lack of implementation plans, which are mandatory when designing new buildings with significant “urban loads” in order to plan the services (parking spaces, kindergartens, public green areas…) to be provided to the residents of the neighborhood from an urban planning point of view .
Here are the cases known so far, in chronological order of opening, and at what stage the proceedings have reached. Hidden Garden in Piazza Aspromonte, Città Studi area: there are 12 suspects, there are also officials from the One Stop Shop for construction of Palazzo Marino and members of the Landscape Commission. The investigations were closed months ago and the request for indictment is awaited. Meanwhile, the Court of Cassation definitively rejected the request for preventive seizure of the building advanced by the prosecutors. Torre Milano in via Stresa, next to piazza Carbonari. The investigations are closed for eight people, including municipal managers. The Prosecutor’s Office has asked for them to be sent to trial and the preliminary hearing before the preliminary hearing judge Teresa De Pascale is set for September 26th. Park Towers in Crescenzago, close to the Lambro Park. Here too, the prosecutors closed the investigation and requested an indictment.
However, checks on the other six construction sites are currently being investigated. These are two projects to build in as many courtyards, in via Fauché, not far from Sempione, and via Lepontina, on the outskirts of the Isola district. Furthermore, the demolition and then the construction of Art Nouveau villas in via Crema, in Porta Romana, and in via Lamarmora, a stone’s throw from the Palace of Justice.
The Bosco Navigli, also called Bosco Orizzontale, designed by star architect Stefano Boeri and built – according to the accusation – without an implementation plan. The Lac Residences at Parco delle Cave, a green area to the west of the metropolis. And the building under construction in via Anfiteatro, in the prestigious Brera district.
