Data centres: three applications challenge regional restrictions in Lombardy
The newly approved regional law has been bypassed: the ‘Bollette’ decree has established a single procedure even without planning amendments
No sooner is a law passed than a loophole is found. Or rather: a national law that allows the provisions laid down by the Lombardy Region to be ‘circumvented’. We are talking about the regulation – the first of its kind in Italia – on data centres, which Lombardy approved a few weeks ago by a large majority (and with some support even from the opposition, who were themselves calling for more stringent measures).
The fact is that whilst the regional council aims to discourage the construction of data centres in rural areas and parks by increasing building fees by 200 per cent, and then leaving it to local councils to decide on any planning amendments, the ‘Bollette’ decree effectively authorises their construction without going through the regional authorities, invoking the definition of a ‘national interest’ that the government may grant. In the name of this ‘interest’, companies can build data centres wherever they wish, and there is no need to obtain a planning amendment to the local spatial planning scheme. Therefore, whilst they will indeed pay the additional charges, compared with the prospect of streamlined bureaucracy—without having to engage with local authorities—this remains a minor issue for large corporations.
Taking advantage of the opportunities provided by the national legislation hastily included in the Bollette Decree, there are already three projects at the authorisation application stage. In Magenta, on the former Novaceta site, a power plant with a capacity of around 240 megawatts is currently under review. In Peschiera Borromeo, in the San Bovio area, there is the Microsoft project on the former Postalmarket site (which, according to the project documentation, excludes the use of water from the drinking water aquifer for cooling, amongst other things). In Bollate, another project is underway, one which has followed a complex process: the appeal to the Regional Administrative Court (TAR) lodged by Legambiente against the municipal approval documents was withdrawn following an agreement on compensatory measures (including a new ecological corridor and the expansion of the Parco delle Groane).
Under the ‘Bollette’ decree, for projects declared to be of ‘overriding national strategic interest’, government authorisation takes direct effect, superseding any other necessary measures and constituting a variation to town-planning instruments, as well as serving as a declaration of public utility. Thus, for major strategic projects, municipal planning may be overridden by this sort of special regulation.
What is currently happening highlights the contradictions that have arisen in the regulatory framework on this issue, due to the lack of a unified vision. The paradox is that it was the centre-right majority itself that created this regulatory loop: whilst in Lombardy it has attempted to limit excessive land use, at national level it is creating a fast track.
