Do precarious structures become permanent?
Once the crisis has passed, what were born as temporary temporary structures created to deal with the exceptional nature of the moment, more often than not, they have not been dismantled and appear to have been transformed into “fixed structures”.
The 2020 Ristori Decree was limited to 31 December 2021. Subsequently, a real flurry of measures (Budget Law 2022, the Milleproroghe 2022, the Competition Decree, DL n. 21/2022, DL n. 144/2022, DL n. 198/2022 etc.) which, in fact, they have allowed to keep these structures are operational. At the same time, thetax exemption on the occupation of public land and the concession fee.
Even these exemptions, originally exceptional, were extended from time to time and seem to have consolidated and transformed into “ordinary” exemptions.
An opportunity for traders
Let's face it: traders earn big money, they increase the surface area available to the public at no cost! Those who pay the price are public finances (which see reduced revenue) and citizens. Pedestrians are forced to slalom and motorists see parking space decreasing, even worse if the structures have been built on the white lines or on free parking spaces.
In some ways they come violate competition rules making it easier for traders who have the opportunity to occupy the space in front of their premises to the detriment of their “colleagues” who are not so fortunate.
Repercussions also on the rental market: at this point a room on the ground floor, equipped with a large sidewalk, has a higher value than a property of the same size and characteristics with a narrow sidewalk. Yet the two venues, with the same covered surface area, have the same cadastral income And pay the same IMU.
Changing the regulations
That these structures were destined to transform from precarious to “ordinary” was almost a given. In Italy the “special rules”, more often than not, with a series of infinite extensions, are transformed into “ordinary rules” also because politics encounters enormous difficulties in canceling the benefits acquired by a group of citizen-voters. The fact that these bonuses were a now established fact is demonstrated by the fact that some municipalities have intervened on the issue by changing the building regulations.
The City Council of the Municipality of Prato, for example, already in December 2022 had modified the municipal regulation allowing the creation of dehors of up to 90 m2 in the historic center and up to 120 m2 in the remaining municipal area.
The Save-Home Decree does not save the dehors
L'art. 2 of the decree seeks to regularize this anomalous situation by allowing these structures to be maintained as long as they are in compliance with urban planning and building instruments and landscape regulations and the “proven and objective needs capable of demonstrating their continuing necessity.”
Maintenance is not automaticone must be submitted sworn communication of the start of work indicating the time of creation and the “proven and objective needs”. Proving the time of creation will not be a problem; in the vast majority of cases these structures were created in the Covid era. The critical point will be the need to demonstrate “the proven and objective needs” And “the continuing need to maintain these structures”.
The Save-Home Decree literally talks about “removable structures created for health, welfare and educational purposes during the national state of emergency declared as a consequence of the health risk connected to the onset of pathologies deriving from transmissible viral agents Covid-19”. Consequently, the continuing needs, must concern exclusively this area of application and, since covid-19 appears to have been put aside, there should no longer be a need to keep these structures alive. We'll see what the Italians come up with.
