Administrative, Building and Urban Planning, Master Plan, Regional Administrative Court of Lombardy, Section II, Judgment of 9 January 2026 no. 119
- Building and Urban Planning – Master Plan – Observations – Legal Nature
There is no strict correlation between the observations received and the municipality’s planning decisions to overcome them, because this would mean depriving the planner of the discretion he has until the outcome of the proceedings and placing private interests in the more lucrative enjoyment of one’s own area before the pre-eminent public interest in planning. The planning authority is not bound by private observations, and the observations do not constitute proposals for administrative measures. (1)
- Building and Urban Planning – Master Plan – Authorization for Production Activities – Variation – Temporariness
A production authorization, having a specific scope and a temporally determined effect, operates on a different level from that of the general planning instrument, which instead has an indefinite and general effect. The fact that the provision approving the construction of waste disposal or recovery facilities automatically determines a variation to the municipal urban planning instrument certainly cannot mean that such variation is definitive and should not be considered effective until the termination of the effects of the authorization to which it is linked. Although the legislation is not explicit on the point, a series of indicators can be found in the system that lead to the variation of the urban planning instrument being classified as temporary and provisional, anchoring its duration to that of the underlying authorization provision, upon the expiration of which the previous urban planning destination of the area must be considered automatically restored, with all the associated consequences. (2)
In its reasoning, the Regional Administrative Court (TAR) highlights that although the legislation is not explicit on the point, a series of indicators can be found in the system that lead to the classification of the variation of the urban planning instrument as temporary and provisional, anchoring its duration to that of the underlying authorization provision, upon the expiration of which the previous urban planning destination of the area must be considered automatically restored, with all the associated consequences.
(1) Conforming: Regional Administrative Court for Lombardy, Section II, 11 July 2024, no. 2128; idem, 26 September 2022, no. 2053.
(2) Conforming: Regional Administrative Court for Lombardy, Section IV, 3 February 2025, no. 358; State Council, Section IV, 17 July 2024, no. 6427; Section IV, 8 October 2024, no. 8086; Regional Administrative Court of Lombardy, Section IV, December 23, 2024, No. 3767; Section III, January 24, 2022, No. 155.
Source: Administrative Justice
