September 6, 2007
SECOND HOMES ‘RUINING TUSCANY’
Pressure group Legambiente is renewing its call to restrict development in Tuscany, Italy. The lobby group is claiming that the region’s natural beauty is under threat from “rivers of cement” as a result of demand for holiday homes in the area.
A spokesman for the environmental group said, “We need to cherish this landscape.” Concerns over the boom in new-build homes in the area was echoed by Alberto Asor Rosa, a professor at La Sapienza University in Rome. He cites an instance in the hamlet of Monticchiello, a historic settlement near Pienza, where new apartments were built on the pretext of providing housing for local people, only to be advertised by the developer as second homes in the Roman press.
There has also been focus on several other projects in the region, where villas and hotels are being constructed in historic towns and picturesque valleys with little regard for the property developers’ impact on the region’s renowned scenic appeal. Often, property developers will ask local authorities for permission to build, promising to provide civic amenities in return. Some of these developments are now being investigated by the government due to questionable legality of negotiations.
Posted on: Italy
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