Sports Arena: Musolino turns down the City
The President of the Port: “In the maritime-port area urban planning falls not to the Administration, but only to us”
By Roberta Rossi
VENEZIA. Sports Arena at Pili? The City has no legitimate basis for such deliberations: the area falls within the boundaries of the 2200 hectares of government-owned ports and, therefore the private Porta di Venezia (or their representatives) must submit their project exclusively to the Port Authority if they wish to construct a Sports Arena or anything else at Pili.
The System Authority President Pino Musolino “threw out” this earth shaking news almost at the end of two hours of flowing presentation in front of the City Councilors, in a discussion about the past and present of the Port of Venezia. The Administration – represented by Assessor Massimiliano De Martin and Derek Donadini from Mayor Luigi Brugnaro’s staff – had been warned, but the news caused a sensation anyway.
“In the maritime-port area urban planning falls not to the Administration, but only to us, to the Port Authority. Pili? These areas fall within those boundaries.”, said Port President Pino Musolino. Behind him was a map showing the areas that fall under the exclusive control of the Port, Pili included. “I have requested an opinion from the State Attorney regarding the criterion for application of Decree 232/2-16 for other issues, and he has reaffirmed without the shadow of a doubt that urban planning and designs for the area (even private) which fall within the boundaries of government-owned maritime property must be discussed exclusively within the scope of the Port Regulatory Plan, which dates back to 1965, but is still in force”, declared Musolino, “Any reporting conference must be called by the Port Authority. The City is not a part of this: urban planning in these areas is not up to them. Reading the newspapers and checking the preliminary Register, we have noted the recent temporary confusion of the City, which has taken actions which it is not allowed to take. We are not looking for a confrontation, rather we invite the private interests to meet with the Port and the Administration –which we have notified – to discuss planned projects with us. We want to work synergistically and not lose time for the City. We wish to avoid conflicts regarding these actions, which we must otherwise contest”.
Cruise Ships at Marghera
Continuing along the lines of “it is the Port that makes decisions regarding the areas under its control”, President Musolino also confirmed the project – vigorously contested by environmentalists, who are ready to appeal – for “the development in the northern area of Port Marghera – in coordination with the Government, the City and the Capitaneria – of two docks for the cruise ships of the future: with hulls projected to be of 300 – 340 meters, which will replace current ships by 2027-2028. The responsibility which the Clini-Passera Decree has given us is not to eliminate the ships from the Venice Lagoon, this is clear, but, rightly, to remove the largest ones from the Bacino di San Marco. This is what we are doing, planning two docks for the largest ships in the northern area, and the excavation of the Vittorio Emanuele canal to take those which are less than 110 thousand tons to Marittima. Because, in a few years the “small” ships of around 40 thousand tons provided for in Clini-Passera for transit in the Bacino will not exist anymore: even the luxury boats will be at least 55 thousand tons. After this anyone who says that ships of 200-220 thousand tons are coming into the Lagoon is telling lies: there is an unavoidable limit that has been set by Mother Nature and this is depth of 12 meters”.
No Hotel: but a Museum and Garage
Also discussed was the recent “no” of the Port to the development of a hotel in the former offices of the Capitaneria at Marittima and of the blocking of a bid for the development of the long awaited multi-story parking garage, which have elicited protests from the Administration. Yesterday Musolino reopened the subject of the garage (almost like a distant counterpoint to the business of Pili): “The civic Law Office ordered me to block the bid for procurement because it was in error, so I did. My intention is to develop the garage and to see, in fact, about raising, as much as possible, the number of assigned spaces for Venetians, because as a Port we want to provide services to the City. As regards “Cremlino”, we are discussing with the Mayor the idea of making it into a Museum of the Sea, dedicated to the maritime port culture of Venice”.
La Nuova Venezia, 24 February 2018
Campaign For A Living Venice 