Thank you for Subscribing to Gov Business Review Weekly Brief
Urban regeneration has been a term used in urban planning for many years, but there is still no clear theory or approach to define strategies, actions and objectives. Therefore, it is important to explore how urban planning can strengthen the regeneration strategy to achieve more effective outcomes.
To explain the Italian issues, particularly the Milanese experience, we need to specify some general elements that characterize the urban planning policies and tools in our country. Urban planning in Italy is defined by concurrent legislation between national law and regional law. The national law was established in 1942, but the regional law in Lombardia was established in 2005 and was upgraded in 2014 specifically on issues of urban regeneration and soil consumption. Urban regeneration and the reduction of soil consumption in metropolitan areas with high density are two sides of the same coin, and this connection is very important. The Milanese strategy has been finding its roots and principles in this fundamental connection between the reduction of soil consumption for more than ten years, across two new general urban plans, the one approved in 2012 and the second one in 2020. In particular, with the plan of 2020, titled "Milano 2030," the vision is changed. Milan is home to around 1.4 million people, with the entire metropolitan area having just over 3 million residents. Despite its relatively small size, Milan has a great ability to attract investment from across the world. Our strength lies in our ability to maintain a human scale, manage urban transformations through a unified vision and link innovation with existing urban infrastructure. Our "Milan 2030" vision aims to reduce economic and social imbalances while developing all districts in a cohesive, integrated strategy. We aim to achieve combined growth while improving environmental conditions and the quality of life of our citizens and users. To achieve these targets, we plan to focus on building more social housing, green areas, agricultural zones and services while maintaining a balanced relationship with private owners and avoiding the consumption of new soil. These aspects will contribute to our vision for urban regeneration in Milan. A good example of our approach is the Reinventing Cities competition, which we held in partnership with C40. Through this competition, we identified over 500,000 square meters of public, underutilized sites that we plan to redevelop using decarbonization goals and innovative solutions for climate and social housing. This experience demonstrates the principal elements of urban regeneration and the importance of effective urban planning. The key assumption behind achieving good growth through urban regeneration is to establish a robust planning system that takes into account the needs of the various stakeholders. This is the guiding principle that is driving us to revise the urban general plan in the aftermath of the pandemic crisis. The new plan that we are working on aims to be revolutionary by introducing a different structure to the urban layout that emphasizes the importance of proximity and polycentrism. The concept of urban regeneration is seamlessly integrated with a perfect connection in the new vision of proximity city, for both big and small projects. In conclusion, we believe that a strategic vision with pragmatic rules is essential for achieving good results. Enforcing debate and participation while maintaining the capacity and responsibility to make decisions is crucial. We must also activate public projects and innovative examples while experimenting with innovative processes and enhancing cooperation between public and private entities without giving up their respective roles.