Over the last decades Settimo Torinese experienced a strong industrialisation due to the growth of the Fiat industry and of the chemical, textile and tyre industrial sectors. This development implied transformations of the Settimo Torinese area which became a national and international linking point to the city of Turin. The territory became an industrial platform and, as a consequence, the environment and the landscape were damaged. The recent car industry crisis caused unemployment, the abandon of industrial sites and the weakness of business, service crafts and innovative entrepreneurship. In the same period, the non-EU immmigration phenomenon emerged bringing new challenges.

The area presents a range of physical, environmental, socio-economic and managerial weaknesses. The “S+3” project establishes a set of objectives to improve living standards of the area through an integrated approach and a perspective of sustainable development. The general objectives are:

The added value of this intervention is its integrated approach which stems from its complementarity with other public policies. This gives the possibility to save public budget and improve the efficiency of programmes.

The project strategy is focused on solving the socio-economic problems through physical strategies. Within an integrated approach, in terms of partnership and policy sectors, the following measures were set out and implemented:

The urban planning project brought a general enhancement of life conditions. In particular, the implementation of the district heating system as alternative energy source had positive effects in terms of pollution reduction and costs saving. The renewal of central and suburban areas enhanced accessibility to infrastructure and services. The hardwiring of the territory to realise a fiber distributed data interface improved the accessibility to information society. Other important interventions were the construction of a new polyclinic, the creation of the “E-Library” a cultural, informative and aggregative centre, the installation of a city monitoring system and the start up of a new bus line connecting the four Municipalities of the project.

The beneficiaries of the programme are the Municipalities of Settimo Torinese, Borgaro Torinese, Leinì and Volpiano.

349 million euros of which:

City of Settimo Torinese
Mr. Giovanni Serra

23/04/2004

case

Urban Policy > Urban environment > Land use

Urban-rural relationship