Urban planning: Boeri and six others committed for trial over Bosconavigli in Milan

Milan, 9 January (LaPresse) – Stefano Boeri and six other builders, architects and officials from the Municipality of Milan will face trial for building violations in connection with the construction of BoscoNavigli, the luxury real estate project in Scalo San Cristoforo in Milan that ended up being involved in the Milan Public Prosecutor’s Office’s urban planning investigations. After two hours of discussion between the lawyers and the public prosecutor Paolo Filippini, Judge Giovanna Taricco of the Tenth Criminal Section of the Court of Milan committed the president of the Triennale, engineer Marco Nolli, the former director of the One-Stop Shop for Building Permits, Giovanni Oggioni, co-designer Giovanni Da Pozzo, builder Cristoforo Giorgi, and Milan City Council executive Andrea Viaroli. They are all accused of culpable cooperation in illegal land parcelling and building abuses for having built a 12-storey building, over 40 metres high at its highest point, on a vacant 8,000 square metre plot, without an implementation plan and in an area where “the maximum height of new buildings cannot exceed the height of existing and surrounding buildings”, and for having done so through an urban planning agreement that was never voted on by the Milan City Council and Executive Committee. The charges also include the misuse of the agreed building permit as a building title and alleged underestimated urbanisation costs. The trial will begin on 16 March at 12.30 p.m. The decision to send all the defendants to trial during the pre-trial hearing was taken by the judge as soon as the lawyers (including Giuseppe Iannaccone, Professor Francesco Mucciarelli, Stefano Solida, Davide Steccannella and Francesco Moramarco) finished speaking in court. The defence lawyers’ arguments focused on the so-called “subjective element”, i.e. the awareness of builders, designers and public officials that they might be violating very complex building and urban planning regulations with different jurisprudential orientations.