Presentation of the Buffer Zone
Mario Margini
Municipality of Genoa - Councillor for Infrastructures and economic development (IT)
The buffer zone and the channel of Pra have taken the place that
was formerly of the beach, of the bathing establishments and of the open sea
that were the southern border of Pra.
This is the price paid by the town for the creation of an industrial port (with
docks for container traffic) in the Pra-Voltri district.
The beach, the bathing establishments, the fish market, the historical spirit
of the sea village have been progressively substituted the "spirit"
of an outskirt area, defenceless witness of the progressive filling-in of the
sea, without rules and uncompleted, that was carried out in that zone from 1964
to 1987, that is to say for more than 20 years, followed by another 20 years
of works carried out with more regulation.
The buffer zone and following the navigable channel, can be really considered
a (partial) compensation for the territorial and environmental complete modification
that was caused by the new port.
The work to create the buffer zone started in 1987 but, despite of the considerable
commitment, the buffer zone and the channel are still uncompleted, especially
as regards the whole of the eastern part, still characterized by a general decay
and currently under recovery.
The Municipality of Genoa has in 1999 started to operate on the buffer zone
in an organic way, with the presentation of the first Scheme of Urban Layout,
that addressed a balanced and general structured of the interventions to be
carried out. Recently the Layout Scheme has been revised and is currently in
the approval process, after having included and developed into details all the
aspects related to the fruition of the buffer zone by the citizens.
The shift of the railway to border of the sea (actually, of the channel), open
last April, changes completely, in fact, the way in which the Buffer Zone can
be exploited: actually the area is now nearer to the houses, and without the
railway crossing can be accessed (and guarded) more easily. Some of the works
already carried out should then be thought again.
The unifying element will be the new Aurelia road, bordering the whole northern
side of the buffer zone, that will include the former railway area and will
become the new access to every part of the buffer zone. But the major change
will be the introduction of the new school that will substitute the existing
ones, with the creation of a new school complex, characterised by high quality
standards, enriched by innovative add-on equipments and fitted also for full-time
exploitation.
The Genoa Municipality has requested to the Port Authority to extend to a duration
of 30 years the maritime Public Domain concession, which includes both the buffer
zone and the navigable channel, up to a total of 500,000sqm and is dealing with
the railway company the acquisition of the whole area of the former railway,
including the old railway station, that is approximately another 30,000sqm .
Starting from October 29, 2003, the non profit association Pra Viva has been
created, that groups 15 already existing associations and 700 partner persons
and has taken the place of the former Pra Mare Consortium that was the pioneer
for the social management in the area.
The convention ruling the relationship between Pra Viva and the Municipality
of Genoa provides that the association manages fully the whole Pra buffer zone
and the navigable channel, taking in charge the maintenance works and whenever
possible doing further investments to complete the final territorial layout
of the area.
The buffer zone creates then the occasion to balance again the overall equipment
of the whole Pra district, from the school situation to the parking and to the
green areas.
Summarising the intervention carried out along the time are the following:
As regards the quantitative point of view, are currently still
present some lacks especially as regards the parking areas, whilst the provision
of green areas and sports areas, as well as of areas for common use, have been
recently increased in a significant manner, just as a consequence of the realisation
of the new structures in the buffer zone.
The school equipment in the district is instead poor, especially with regard
to the quality. In fact the school are today hosted by buildings with a structure
out-of-date, almost missing of equipments. This fact has led to the decision,
extremely demanding, of planning a complete renewal of the service.
The whole eastern part of the buffer zone, up to almost one half of the total
surface was recently interested by a specific action addressing the recovery
the situations of diffuse abusiveness, thanks to a demolition and reclamation
action able to recovery the surface that is necessary and sufficient to implement
the provisions done for the re-qualification of the site.
The actions considered by the new planning are the following: