The city council approved the municipal structural plan which, 52 years later, sends the old general master plan fired in the early 1970s to the attic. “It’s a historic day,” said the mayor Giuseppe Falcomatà commenting on the chamber’s green light to the document illustrated by the Planning Councilor, Domenico Battaglia.
«At the end of a very long process – he added – we managed to provide the city with a modern, open, agile, participatory PSC, which finally establishes precise rules and outlines the vision of Reggio for the next 30 years. Let us say goodbye, therefore, to wild overbuilding and enter the new dimension of zero land consumption that Europe is asking of us.”
«I thank – continued Falcomatà – all the protagonists of the creation, consultation and approval of the PSC, all the offices and professionals who worked on it. In particular, my deepest gratitude goes to the former councillor Mariangela Cama for the extraordinary work carried out. As a technician in addition, he made his professional skills and abilities available to the city, he did it with extraordinary love for the community and reminded us how things can be done well with that element that we often talk about and which she brings: kindness. Thank you for what you did and how you did it.”
Councilor Battaglia, during his speech, thanked the mayor Giuseppe Falcomatà who, since the beginning of the union, “gave a decisive impulse to bring about this important day”. «The PSC – he continued – satisfies and achieves urban, environmental, economic, cultural and landscape objectives. It is a very important planning tool that is associated with the master plan already underway, the DPSS, the port master plan, and the airport master plan being drawn up. All frameworks that serve to improve the liveability of the city.” Finally, feelings of gratitude were expressed for «the designers, the geologists, the municipal Urban Planning and Planning sector, the manager Carmen Stracuzza, the rup Alberto Di Mare, the professional associations, the builders’ association, the former councilors Giuseppe Marino and Mariangela Cama.”
The councilor also intervened on this point Giuseppe Sera underlining how «the vision of the city is being drawn increasingly linked, in a morbid way, to the sea front». «The building amnesties, the works built, without constraints and permits, along the riverbeds or in the splendid citrus groves of our territory, end», he said.
Mayor Giuseppe Falcomatà, who spoke in the preliminary stages, once again focused on the signing of the employment contracts of the 130 winners of the Municipality’s public competitions: «It was the most exciting moment of my political activity». Therefore, with respect to some requests from the minority, the mayor turned his thoughts “to those who, especially in these festive days, find themselves forced into a hospital”. «Politics – he explained – should deal a little more with the problems of our healthcare system which, as I have seen, are still too many and truly unbearable».
The mayor, addressing the chamber, recalled “the values on which the pact with the voters is based and which, since the first term, have been the genetic heritage of this administration”. «Work – he underlined – is the first value and today it sees the hiring of new municipal employees and, over time, it has seen the safeguarding of the employment levels of the investee companies. Tidy accounts are the second stigma of our administration. When we say that we have crossed the desert it is because, compared to a much easier choice, we had a sense of responsibility in avoiding taking irreversible and much more difficult paths for citizens and businesses”.
Then, the environment: «It is another value that unites us, as are public health and the planning of sustainable choices that go beyond a political cycle. The approved structural plan is the result of programming that is always the same. The men have changed since the beginning of this season, but the pattern is still the same, demonstrating that they are united around an idea. People much more authoritative than us have said that ideas walk on the legs of men who, over time, can, however, be different from those who started that journey.” Another common value, for Mayor Falcomatà, is the defense of the least fortunate: «I want to show closeness and solidarity to the operators of the Hub for the Sbarre family, recently the subject of a heavy act of vandalism. A project that is a point of reference for the neighborhood and for the city, just one of the many social measures that the administration has dedicated to the most vulnerable. I think of the Home for the Homeless or the Home for Women Victims of Violence. The lunch on December 26th opened the doors of Palazzo San Giorgio to the people who suffer the most. This is also a beautiful fact. It is clear, therefore, that we must overcome this phase and go beyond the wall.” Citing a passage from The Betrothed, the mayor thus stated that «we are in a time of courageous choices. And if you don’t have the courage, you can’t give it.”
During the preliminaries of the session, the councilor intervened Giuseppe Marino underlining the importance of the hiring of the new 130 municipal employees and reporting the data that recognize, in the Municipality of Reggio, the advancement of the spending capacity on European funds of over 81%.
«In the last two months alone – he explained – 47 million euros have been liquidated and paid. Resources which, for the most part, remain in the city economy for companies that invest in the circular economy sector, for third sector bodies, companies operating in the construction sector, professionals or families in difficulty.”
The councilors also took part in the debate Giuseppe Sera, Franco Barreca, Giuseppe Giordano, Nino Malara and Antonino Castorina. Together with the PSC, all 21 points on the agenda were approved.