Green light in the Urban Planning Commission for a series of interventions that strengthen the basketball vocation of the neighborhood: goodbye to five-a-side football, space for basketball, 3×3 and public areas. There remain issues regarding parking and roads.
VARESE – Masnago consolidates its role as the beating heart of Varese basketball. In the session on Thursday 5 February, the Urban Planning Commission illustrated and started the process of two interventions that redesign the sports spaces of the neighborhood: the Campus in via Pirandello and the area behind the Itelyum Arena, along via Pista Vecchia.
On Campus, only basketball (and 3×3): five-a-side football leaves room for playgrounds
The first project concerns the external fields of the Campus, private spaces for public use regulated by a thirty-year agreement – now close to expiring – stipulated when the sports center was built by the Bulgheroni family. Today the area hosts two basketball courts, a 3×3 basketball court and a five-a-side football pitch. The new configuration aims at a complete specialization on basketball.
In concrete terms, they are foreseen two basketball courtsof which one covered for use by the company e one outdoors for public use, four 3×3 basketball playgroundsall for public use, in place of the current five-a-side football pitch, a kiosk serving the area e new offices for Varese Basketball inside the Campus, created in place of the grandstand on field 2.
An intervention that strengthens the public usability of the spaces and, at the same time, responds to the organizational needs of society.
A new field also in front of the arena
The second piece of the plan concerns the municipal area in front of the building, in via Pista Vecchia. As the councilor for public works Andrea Civati clarified, the resolution approved in the Commission authorizes urbanistically the construction of the new volume, but since it is an area owned by the municipality, any construction will have to follow the procedures of procurement code. The next step will therefore be approval by the City Council.
«This area will be destined almost exclusively for public use», underlined Civati, underlining the open purpose of the project.
The doubts: parking and roads
From the opposition front, in particular from councilors De Amici (Fratelli d’Italia) and Formato (Varese Ideale), observations have arrived on impacts on traffic and on loss of approximately 50 parking spaces in an area that is already very busy, especially on match days. The councilor assured that the issue will be addressed with the company to identify compensatory solutions, especially during sporting events.
The point was finally approved with the favorable vote of the majority e the abstention of minorities. Masnago, meanwhile, is preparing to increasingly become a district dedicated to segmented ball.
