Hotels and restaurants in Sardinian roadside houses? All stopped for a year and a half, Mattarella decides

The fate of 29 roadside houses in Sardinia is in the hands of Sergio Mattarella. Or who for him. Because it is called "Extraordinary Appeal to the Head of State" the one presented by the lawyers of the Region against the Anas announcement of March 2021 for the assignment of historic buildings built (and abandoned) along the main roads of the island. But the judges of the Council of State will really decide, with a binding opinion.

THE FIGHT. The judicial battle is underway, with disputes and additions. Meanwhile, the procedure is paralyzed. For a year and a half. And buildings that on paper were destined to become hotels, restaurants or tourist information points continue to fall apart. The idea wasn't bad. Too bad he hadn't come to terms with the Sardinian Statute, with its constitutional rank to protect the prerogatives of the Region.

PLAN. In 2020 Anas had conducted a sort of market survey: interest emerged in those structures that the road management company no longer serves. Indeed, they are a cost. So here is that the following year in the Official Gazette the announcement for the assignment was published: 100 roadman's houses had been placed on the market to be refurbished and entrusted in concession, to generate income to those who would be awarded them. Almost a third of the structures are in Sardinia, the vast majority along the eastern coast of Sardinia. They could be transformed into "quality accommodation activities and complementary functions such as restaurants, bars or refreshment points, information and educational centers, charging stations for electric vehicles". In short, there was a large redevelopment plan to be entrusted to private individuals.

THE STATUTE. But the Anas had forgotten, it seems, a crucial point: all state-owned assets that no longer fulfill their functions, in Sardinian land, and are no longer used, according to the Statute, article 14, must pass into the hands of the Region. Therefore the Spa of the streets could not do business on properties that were to enter the heritage of the government body of Sardinia.

THE APPEAL. And it is on this point that the lawyers of Viale Trento leveraged, when they presented the appeal before Mattarella. "The special statute establishes, in article 14, first paragraph", reads the deed filed in Rome, "that the Region, within its territory, succeeds in the property and patrimonial rights of the State of a real estate nature and in those state property, excluding the maritime state property ". This is the heart of the document: hence the request for cancellation of the entire procedure. It has been almost a year and a half since it was presented. The outcome? Still to be written, they let Anas know: The procedure "has been temporarily frozen pending the outcome of the extraordinary appeal to the Head of State presented by the Autonomous Region of Sardinia". Autonomous, in fact.