Booklet Casoria | local action plan

More Info This is a special edition. It brings the essence of 2,5 years of hard work and new insights.

Casoria ITALY

partner cities of sub>urban Antwerp, Baia Mare, AMB, Brno, Casoria, Düsseldorf, Oslo, Solin, Vienna www.urbact.eu/sub.urban @suburbanfringe Spring 2018

STRATEGY FOR THE TRANSFORMATION

OF THE FRINGE IN BETWEEN THE CITY CORE AND THE ROAD OF AMERICANS EUROPEAN UNION

European Regional Development Fund

English summary of the Integrated Action Plan in the framework of the URBACT network sub>urban, Reinventing the fringe .

Strategy of Municipality of Casoria for the transformation of the fringe in-between the City core and the Road of Americans English summary of the Integrated Action Plan

Table of Content

1. Initial situation ....................................................................................... 1 2. Objectives for the transformation ........................................................... 14 3. Action plan & Transformation timeline ................................................... 20 3. Management & Governance structure for the transformation process ....... 42 1. General idea dealing with the transformation of the entire fringe in the future .................................................................................................. 45 5. Further information............................................................................... 48

1. Initial situation

general overview Casoria is a medium size city – 77.000 inh., 12 sqkm – located in the metropolitan area of Naples, close to the main city. After the Second World War, Casoria has had a huge expansion, as a result of reconstruction programme and public aid for the economic development of the Southern Italy (funds coming from the American so called “Marshall Plan”): in a few years – especially during the 50s and 60s - an impressive demographic growth changed the former rural village (20k inh. in 1951) in an important industrial pole, with about 80k inhabitants (2001). The urban growth was not guided by adequate public planning and policies: both the industrial districts and the new residential neighbourhoods were built disorderly, outside of any general framework. Only in the 70s, Casoria had a General Town Plan (“Piano Regolatore Generale” in Italian), and, however, thousands of buildings, both productive and residential ones, were built, during 70s, 80s and 90s, in contrast with the land use planning rules. The result is a dense and low-efficient urban settlement, car-based, characterized by low-quality of life standards. The systemic inefficiency of the urban growth did not help the permanence of industrial activities: since the early 80s all the main factories were dismissed.

Today, five big brownfields, contiguous to the city core – “fringes in the city” - are still waiting for new uses and are nowadays colonized by wild vegetation (urban forest or “third landscape”). Moreover, with the financial crisis of the last decades, many economic tertiary activities – offices and

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shopping centers, particularly located along the main infrastructure – have closed or reduced their business. The first consequence on the social structure is an impressive unemployment rate (30%) and the increase of criminality. Finally, during the last decade, Casoria has lost inhabitants (3 thousands in the last decade) and several vacant apartments and services spread both into the dense XXth century belt and into the fringe (1.885 unused residential units, about 10% of the total amount).

The shrinking phenomenon is not homogeneous, since mostly educated and wealthy inhabitants are leaving Casoria.

why does Casoria want to re-invent the fringe?

Casoria needs to look at the future through the lens of a radical shift from its recent history. The initial spark of the change can burst right into the fringe, where many ‘forgotten’ spaces can be more easily revived, reused and transformed right away.

The basic strategy of the IAP derives from the new Town Plan, approved by the City Council (2013 and 2015), that firstly addresses the goal of reversing the current, negative image of Casoria, from a “town of disposal" and a “landscape of concrete" to an innovative, bright, green, and sustainable city. The focus is on voids and unused areas (as agricultural residues, buffer bands of highways and railways, etc.), particularly widespread in the fringe.

The Plan proposes a large and continuous green area, a new urban forest characterized as a social space for public use and provided with collective facilities and common services. A new park of 3 square kilometres is planned as a complex green machine, a self-sufficient environmental assemblage, providing its own energy through photovoltaic & piezoelectric harvesting systems and small biomass power plants and fuelled by the life cycle of the urban woodlands and recycling of organic waste. The strategy intends to transform degraded spaces to push the urban transformation: the large open park – whose extension in the long-time-scenario (20 years) will amount to a quarter of the entire municipal territory – will change the urban structure.

The Plan is conceived as an adaptive and flexible “active device” working on space over time. It is composed of a general Strategic Framework (Structural Plan) and a first Operational Plan limited to the common-wooden-park areas (Operational Plan no. 1, titled “The big common park”). The deconstruction of the traditional, comprehensive and careless of time land-use-plan brought the Plan

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out of the stranded debate about the future of the large abandoned industrial fences located in the core town, close to the historical centre. Therefore, first of all, the Plan identifies the areas of the wooden-park to be realized in the short term as a form of topological continuity and hybrid metabolism. Only later the reform of urban city-core areas will be designed with further Operational Plans, when new contextual and political conditions gradually will rise. In order to overcome the obduracy of this settlements, the Plan needs large popular support and significant financial resources.

All this means starting from the fringe, by a plain spatial transformation – social and ecological oriented – there harvesting the energy needed for more complex regenerations.

the focus area and the pilot of Michelangelo park The Integrated Action Plan (IAP) developed for Sub>Urban, tries to put into practice the Sbs strategy on which the Structural Plan is based. The IAP is focused on a district located between the city core and the so-called “Road of Americans” (a highway connecting Casoria with the Domitian coast, originally plotted by Allied forces during the Second World War).

The IAP focus area is particularly interesting for several reasons: 1) it is composed of different morphological types of residential settlements: private dwellings and social housing neighbourhoods, with different densities and functional mixes; 2) a huge commercial and productive area is located along the Road of Americans, even if some shopping centres are in crisis or dismissed; 3) the larger brownfield in Casoria – the former Rhodiatoce chemical factory – defines the northern border of the focus area, in connection with the historical centre and the railway station; 4) large vacant public facilities are widespread in the area, e.g. the 7-story building of the former tribunal or the slaughterhouse; 5) two large former military areas (in via Michelangelo and via Boccaccio) are available for new uses today; one of them is occupied and used by squatters; 6) large infrastructures, highways

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and the national railway, pass through, in both directions (N-S and E-W) and they are surrounded by continuous interstitial spaces with large junctions and other unused and degraded buffer strips.

Generally, the spatial structure is porous, with many open voids – abandoned green areas and few rural fields – interposed between main infrastructures and built-up neighbourhoods. Large asphalt parking areas surround the productive and commercial boxes, especially on the southern side.

Testing the step-by-step strategy in a so complex and representative sample is particularly interesting, since many types of planning actions can be tested.

At the same time, the area is interesting for the presence of large municipal-owned parcels. This initial condition, quite diffused all over the fringe, makes it feasible the implementation of the regeneration process, starting from the opening to temporary uses and basic improvements.

In parallel with the shaping of the general debate, since 2015 until today, a first pilot is being implemented into the focus area: the new Michelangelo public park, the larger one in Casoria.

It is a former military site, which covers about 30.000 square meters, close to the viaduct of the Road of Americans, about 1 km far from the city core. As a consequence of a national law, the Italian Air Force has given this area to Municipality for free, some years ago. In 2015, the site was a perfect example of the so-called “third landscape”, with wild vegetation growing in the large natural soil surrounding a little building where military radars were previously located.

The area has been open to the public use for the first time during a “guerrilla gardening” event, during the Urbact Transnational Meeting in November 2016, open to hundreds of young students and citizens with the participation of colleagues of the Sub>urban network. Previously, a large participatory process was developed with inhabitants, associations, other stakeholders, to establish functions, and the conditions to access into the area. Anyway, the co-design of the park was substantially

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defined during the public event, with the help of the landscape architect Miguel Georgieff (Atelier Coloco, Paris).

Nowadays, the site is open to temporary events, and the construction of basic infrastructures (toilets, and water well), designed for it, is in progress. The furniture has been co-designed during last participatory events and tables, benches and other facilities, have been built for free as a result of a public sponsorship procurement. Moreover, the fence of the site will be restored by private investors interested in the renewal of a former shopping mall located in the district (“Euromercato�, one of the first American shopping mall in Italy). The park will be definitively open to the public use during the final local event of Sub>urban (April 2018).

The implementation of the via Michelangelo pilot area, and the co-management rules to be tested there, will be extended in all the similar sites of the urban fringe.

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2. Objectives for the transformation transforming the vision into action The main objective of the IAP is the promotion of local development through the creation of a network of abandoned and underutilized spaces – buildings and areas – of the fringe. This kind of vision can be considered as the establishment of circular economy principles into the practice of spatial planning.

The Structural Plan approved in 2013 recalls this strategy combined with a gradual implementation approach, triggered by the abandoned spaces regeneration in the periurban area. The strategy aims at a more ambitious perspective: to push even more complex regeneration processes in the medium term, which affect the central urban parts, congested with inhabitants and functions.

The public, social and ecological reuse of marginal areas - dedicated to the construction of a big periurban park (a sort of forest that develops from the great infrastructures to the dense city) - is aimed at two objectives: to increase the amount of green in a municipality characterized by very low environmental standards (O1); to equip the Municipality with new public spaces and recreational, social opportunities, in order to improve the living of the inhabitants (O2).

The new public green network, obtained through the rediscovery and connection of degraded spaces - is a fertile ground for the development of eco-innovation companies and for the creation of job opportunities, even low competence jobs, in the sectors of agriculture, plant nursery, maintenance and care of the city. The network of “public woods” will also reconnect private, marginal

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areas, where the Town Plan allows the construction of unbuilt services of public interest - as playgrounds, urban gardens, farmer markets, etc. – in return for rights of access and public usage. Even these activities can be helpful in promoting the creation of new job opportunities. In the field of ecological innovation, the socio-economic development represents a further considerable objective of the Local Action Plan (O3).

The regeneration process starts from the fringe to extend to the city core, passing through the reuse of the large brownfields located in the crown of the dense urban area.

One more objective of the Local Action Plan is to foster the debate on brownfield, in order to start the negotiation with the ownership on public temporary use of some private areas, in the short term (O4). On the other hand, in the medium-long term, the aim is to transform brownfields into new integrated high urban quality and energy efficiency districts (O5); their urban rehabilitation will also allow triggering the relocation of some buildings located in disorganized and low-quality settlements in the dense urban crown (O6) and the city centre (O7).

Finally, the parks network will constitute a public ecological element of reconnection on a regional scale, linked to the large infrastructures network and included in the Structural Plan as a program of the metropolitan city Plan. In the long term, the “urban forest� will be able to reconnect all the hinterland centres of Naples with each other and with the public hubs, as the High-Speed Train Station of Afragola and the future technological and service hub linked to that (O8).

This is the reason why is desirable that the participatory planning SBS (Step By Step) laboratory, operating in Casoria since 2015 and composed by technicians, politicians, professors and researchers of the Department of Architecture (DiARC) of the University of Naples, environmental and social associations and stakeholders - will include Metropolitan Region, Campania Region and the surrounding districts.

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The process described could be linked to the ongoing elaboration of the new regional landscaping Plan, in synergy with similar participatory and innovative experiences, such as Repair research, financed by EU Horizon 2020 program (GA 688920), led by DiARC and Campania Region with the involvement of the Municipality of Casoria.

The Local Action Plan covers an area of about 320 ha, located between the city centre and the socalled Road of Americans. A focus area that includes parts of the fringe and some important “nodes” between the fringe and the dense city (see Chapter 1 for more details).

relations with the topics of Sub>Urban The main topic of the IAP, in relation to the sub>urban field of activity, is “transforming planning” (s>u1). Nevertheless, all the sub>urban topics are in connection with the proposed action plan, in decreasing order: transforming for social inclusion (s>u2); transforming for intensified uses (s>u3); transforming private space (s>u4); transforming relations with the region (s>u5).

Transforming planning (s>u1) is necessary to give citizens and investors more confidence into the power of planning and public policies. A turn is needed to change the “mood” of people and stakeholders and, at the same time, to improve the image of Casoria, focusing on innovation, sustainability, inclusion. As written in Chapter 1, Casoria is a city in crisis with huge problems in the fields of socio-economics, environment, urban quality. Both the city core and the fringe are involved in processes of decrease that cause shrinkage and underusing of areas and buildings. The inefficiency of the urban settlements, the poor environmental quality, low liveability, are all phenomena linked one to another, with a general negative effect on the whole city.

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The relevance and the complexity of topics, together with the long-time political conflicts on the future of the main brownfield, make almost impossible for any new land-use town plan to face all challenges at the same moment. Moreover, in the actual condition, the design of renewal “blueprint” projects, for the future of high-density / low-quality urban districts, should be generally intended as unrealistic, thereby widening the sense of frustration of citizens and stakeholders.

As already described, a new Town Plan was adopted in 2013. It is based on a strategic framework (Structural Plan), with basic rules that can be flexibly articulated into Operational Programs, to be drawn up and realized when conditions and opportunities are favourable. The first Operational Program focuses on the abandoned, underutilized and degraded areas – the so-called ‘wastescapes’ – flanking the major infrastructures that cross the fringe-territory. The strategy uses wastescapes to push the urban transformation: a large open park (forest, playground, unbuilt facilities) - whose extension in the long-time-scenario will amount to a quarter of the entire municipal territory - will change the urban structure of Casoria. Real transformation projects are intended as essential for the success of the stepwise strategy. That is why the process can start with small-scale actions: temporary public uses of abandoned lands, massive planting of trees and hedges, and steady implementation of pedestrian, cycling and ecological paths. All those operations can be done on public land but also on private owned ones, giving privates incentives to implement new uses, of social interest and by eco-sustainable solutions. The first steps of the regeneration process show direct results able to increase the trust of citizens in the local government and in the possibility of the change. So, gradually, the “step by step strategy” moves forward to more difficult transformations: the redevelopment of brownfields, the renewal of high-density urban areas and the restoration of historical settlement.

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It is established that the process of clarifying planning rules must take place within the framework of a transparent negotiation: a “public arena”, open to citizens and associations, so that urban flexibility cannot generate corrupt processes. To start negotiations, private land-owners – i.e. of the brownfield - will be required to provide public paths open to temporary public use. Those areas, given to temporary public uses, are “tokens” to be paid to start the negotiations process to be completed in allocated time, actualizing the general rules established by the Structural framework.

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Starting from abandoned or underused spaces helps the construction of a new system of public and ecological relationship, increasing the amount of social, recreational and sports unbuilt facilities, as well as the ecological infrastructures, generating positive effects on the environment and the local economy. The rehabilitation of peripheral wastescapes allows establishing a new urban structure, able to extend its positive benefits to the city core, following the involvement of built and central areas in urban transformation. The participation of citizens in co-planning, in co-construction and, finally, in comanagement of the new public green areas, is crucial in order to build up the social inclusion in short-term (s>u2). On one hand, citizens feel more confident and empowered in purposing uses and shapes of spaces, and, above all, to take care of their maintenance; on the other hand, the renovation of large peripheral areas with new forms of social economy can help to reduce social suffering and to increase job opportunities, also for lower skilled people.

In short-term, in order to have more consistent results in the medium/long-term, this process can also be started by the permanent opening of the public parks and the spreading of renovation into the compact city core and the centres of the dense urban region. The argument is that abandoned places, today lacking values, can contribute to the revival of the local economy, respecting the rules fixed in a Regulation (“Charter� elaborated in the Urbact Local Group) that will be approved soon.

The reuse of this spaces, even with no traditional urban functions, is to be intended as a form of intensified uses (s>u3). Furthermore, the large periurban park has also a regional scale function

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(s>u5) as cycle-pedestrian and ecological connection with future parks along Asse Mediano highway (West of Casoria), East-Naples new districts (South) and the high-speed railway station of Afragola (East), just completed. These connections can be fully realized in a medium-long time, but some interventions, however, should be realized in a short-term, thanks to their affordability and importance at the same time. In this sense, it would be necessary to work with the Municipality of Afragola and the Metropolitan City. Regarding the transformation of private space (s>u4), it is necessary to distinguish between different types of spaces that require different approaches and implementation times. Looking at the entire municipality of Casoria, well represented by the Local Action Plan area, it is possible to recognize the following typologies: 1) abandoned or underused private spaces: the Structural Plan allows their social and ecological reuse, in exchange for urban incentives (possibility to create small building volumes in exchange for public passages and elimination of concrete surfaces); 2) private buildings in the fringe: tax incentives for the rehabilitation of buildings, and possibilities to increase cubic capacity for the relocation of buildings in hazard zones or to reshape irrational settlements; with the general purpose of the re-organization and the improvement of the settlement system; 3) brownfields: it is decided that 50% of the areas will become public property, in exchange for the possibility of transforming existing volumes into new homes and services.

Part of the housing must be affordable and social housing; moreover, an amount of housing is reserved for the relocation of buildings of the fringe and of the historic centre. The definition of these rules takes place in a public arena and the beginning of the negotiations is accompanied by the immediate opening to public use of part of the enclosures; 4) for the compact and dense settlements in which vacancy is nowadays spreading, a general reform of the structure is promoted: densification of some urban parts and elimination of concrete surfaces in some others, to allow the infill of the green-public network into the city core. To push this process, several types of incentives could be conferred as well.

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3. Action plan & Transformation timeline objectives In a strategic plan, the objectives constitute the conceptual junction between general vision and actions, ongoing and planned, to be placed in a roadmap with short (2 years), medium (10 years) and long-term (> 20 years) stages.

In our case, the objectives of the action plan have been defined in a “public arena” through the participatory process that is started in December 2015, with the first meeting of the Ulg (Musem Cam, 21th December 2015). They are closely related to the most relevant topics that local actors see as priorities to be addressed to improve the current condition. Those topics have been collectively debated and ordered in a tree structure thanks to the aid of a community psychologist. So, a “challenge zone” has been defined, as the result of the main critical issues to be faced to solve the problems that the urban fringe suffers today in Casoria.

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In summary, the main objectives of the Local Action Plan Sub> Urban for Casoria are:

O1. Increase of the natural areas. In general, the goal is to increase the amount of permeable green areas, to improve current environmental standards and to increase systemic resilience (see the 2013 Puc Environmental Report, available at: pianificazionecasoria.blogspot.it). This will guarantee the improvement of the environmental standards with positive effects on the reduction of the air pollution (the trees produce oxygen and absorb the Co2), the reduction of the noise coming from the infrastructures (the trees as sound barrier), and the improvement of the perceived image of Casoria (from concrete-city to forest-city). Furthermore, the compact presence of trees in those areas along the infrastructure and in abandoned lots, occupying the ground, constitutes a deterrent to the abusive abandonment of waste, one of the most urgent problems in the area north of Naples (see the following Life project: http://www.ecoremed.it/). Finally, the increase in permeable surfaces improves the behaviour of the urban system in the event of meteoric precipitation - currently the area is exposed to widespread flooding risk - and helps to reduce the summer heat island effect, counteracting the negative effects of climate change.

O2. Increase of the amount and quality of space for public use. Casoria is today in a deep deficit of areas for sociality, sport, and recreation. Even the proper parking lots are very limited, causing a massive presence of vehicles parked along the city streets. The different urban parts – either low density, informal or not, either high density, private or public housing – are disconnected from public spaces. Therefore, the deficit of open public areas does not only concern purely quantitative aspects but also qualitative, relational aspects, as often the existing equipment and services appear as disconnected fragments, within a discontinuous urban fabric, with low pedestrian and cycle interconnection. For this reason, the creation of a large periurban park, both on public areas and with incentives for private owners, is a priority objective for the municipal administration. From the urban planning point of view, this means giving priority to interventions of public interest, trying to stimulate, subsequently, private and quality interventions. Furthermore, even on existing public spaces, action must be taken to improve comfort, security and liveability.

O3. Creation of new job opportunities Unemployment is one of the most relevant problems in the metropolitan area of Naples: Casoria is no exception with an average of unemployment rate at around 30%, which doubles itself if referred to the younger social groups. As consequence of the economic crisis of the metropolitan area of Naples, should be rediscovered the residual value of what already exists, even if sometimes it does not present particular values or seems to be like a waste of former productive processes. At the same time, realistic attitudes must accompany ambitious visions of transformation, realized in different times, when the opportunities and conditions allow it. The two actions - the realistic short-term one and the strategic, long-term other - are mutually collaborative. According to this principle, the reuse of waste territories – “wastescapes” (Amenta, Attademo, 2016; Formato, Attademo, Amenta, 2017) even with temporary and instrumental uses - can be an opportunity for the development of new local economies and new job opportunities, both in the eco-innovation (with high skills required) and in the social economy fields, aimed at the maintenance and care of urban spaces, and at new forms of welfare (for a complete definition of the concept, see the Horizon2020 project "REPAiR": http: http://h2020repair.eu/). Projected in the future, the image of a different Casoria - green, sustainable, open and accessible - is "activated" by the creative recovery, often temporary, of what already exists.

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O4. Re-opening of brownfields fence. The abandoned industrial areas are located between the urban centre and the suburbs. One of the main abandoned areas of Casoria, the former Rhodiatoce chemical factory, is one of the places of greatest interest for the Local Action Plan: its positional value is very significant, also considering the proximity to the railway station. Therefore, its at least partial re-opening would help to reconnect the urban centre with the city fringe and to ensure better integration with the regional context. Moreover, the area has been colonized in the last decades, by a wild nature - a "third landscape" - which today presents itself as a real urban forest. These are the reasons why it seems very important to reuse as soon as possible, part of this enclosure, anticipating the public use of some of its portions and the opening of sections of the enclosure wall of the area.

These temporary reactivations of the open space, feasible immediately with the agreement of the property, would anticipate the overall redevelopment, which instead will require huge investments and realistic times to project in a medium-long scenario. This process is promoted by temporary public uses in some crucial urban areas, in-between the city centre and the fringes, able to trigger a greater urban regeneration. According to the Structural Plan, temporary public uses are "traded" for the opening of the negotiation process with the private owners of the areas. The local action plan will focus on the former Rhodiatoce, but the actions that will be implemented in this area can be extended to all the other abandoned industrial areas of Casoria, identified by the Municipal Structural Plan.

O5. Renovate the brownfields. Among the ambitious objectives of the Integrated Action Plan is the regeneration of the large abandoned industrial areas of Casoria, extended for tens of hectares, and now partly reconquered by a flourishing spontaneous vegetation, awaiting transformation from more than thirty years. The realization of this objective must be included in a medium-long term perspective, and above all it requires the availability of private investments, given the nature of the

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areas and the ownership. The transformation of the brownfields is guided by the Structural Plan which also provides for the possibility of relocating in situ, as a “reward", the building quantities that are today improperly located in the historic centre or on its immediate margins. As mentioned, the Action Plan focuses on the area of the former Rhodiatoce; however, the definition of an Operational Plan for all the major disused areas of Casoria constitutes a pre-condition necessary for the concrete implementation of the actions within the individual areas.

O6. Regenerating dense urban and periurban areas, to be realized in the long term. These areas are characterized by low quality standards, high density and low presence of green and public space, chaotic and car-based areas. In the short term, the redevelopment of the existing public space and promotion of cycle-pedestrian mobility can be carried out. In the long term, it is proposed to eliminate the concrete surfaces within some "corridors" and built-up areas - also through the potential demolition and relocation of buildings – to facilitate the construction of new public spaces. The process can be also stimulated by urban incentives coming from the transformation of brownfields (delocalization of volume). In implementation of the Structural Plan, the elimination of some buildings (or “de-concrete") project must be built over time - it is not in any way a device or an imposition, but it is built on a consensual basis, in collaboration with the inhabitants and investors; it can be stimulated with urban incentives offered by the transformation of brownfields (delocalization of volumes) or even by urban subdivisions of local reorganization with building types suitable to further realize density of the urban settlement, "freeing" ground surfaces (i.e. promoting height development). This objective has some differences in relation to the urban centre (O6A) and the productive areas (O6B), particularly located in the suburbs, that need to be reorganized in a more efficient and environmentally sustainable way. The theme of the regeneration of the public hous-

ing or affordable housing (O6C) is different, even if connected to this one. The main challenges of the latter are related to reconnection with the context (still an operation on public space) and the introduction of absent productive and commercial functions.

O7. Promoting the enhancement of the historic centre. It is a long-term objective, which takes account of the elimination of concrete surfaces of the dense urban crown full of cementation (O6). Moreover, the urban planning incentives used for O6 can be used to promote the relocation of modern buildings not compatible with urban restoration. In the short term, the approval of the Restoration Manual contained in the new Structural Plan will be able to guide the building restoration interventions carried out by private individuals in the historic centre. The focus area does not properly include the historical centre of Casoria. However, the actions to be carried out in the fringe are structurally linked also to the achievement of this objective, as they favour the feasibility of actions planned for the future in dense urban areas.

O8. Ecological and public reconnection on a regional scale. The scale of the challenges that Casoria have to face requires the involvement of the other municipalities of the district. The reconnection with different urban centres of the region, the establishment of a system of resources, as well as the coordination of some basic services, is as necessary as urgent. Although a real integration will take long time, it is possible to start to formulate some initial reconnection actions in the medium-short term, with particular reference to new public connections between the centre of Casoria and the new hub of the High-Speed Train Station of Naples-Afragola, which connects to Rome in 1 hour. (A public service of bus has been organized for a few months and also includes a connection run from the central Railway Station of the city of Casoria to the High-Speed Train Station of Naples-Afragola).

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key actions

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The following are the main actions (key actions) that can now be identified at the municipal scale, for the pursuit of the listed objectives. However, further actions, even of significant impact, may emerge in the near future, in relation to events and opportunities that are not entirely predictable today. Likewise, some of the actions listed below - in particular those that envisage medium to long implementation times - can be better clarified and partly modified as a result of the actual implementation conditions in which they will be deployed.

A0. Approval of the structural plan The approval of the Plan would make it possible to have a flexible regulation tool within the basic rules and procedures that are certain, transparent and valid for everyone. This is a preparatory action to all the others - therefore called "0" - since the Action Plan is strongly consistent with the provisions and is regulated in the new municipal urban planning instrument. The Structural Plan will be accompanied by the first operational plan of the "Big Park" to which all the specific actions envisaged in the Action Plan will be integrated.

Time: Action projected in the short time. The Plan was adopted in 2013 and 2015 by the City Council.

The new administration elected in 2016 is assessing the need to make some changes to the planning instrument before proceeding to its final approval.

Link with objectives: all objectives can be achieved more easily by having the plan fully in force.

Nature of the financing: the adjustment of the Plan requires modest economic resources, for the updating of the cognitive data and the eventual modification of the graphics, to weigh on the municipal budget.

A1. Realization of Michelangelo Park (Pilot no.1) The area - a former disused military site - has an extension of about three hectares and is located close to the Road of Americans (see Chapter 1).

In 2015, it presented itself as an example of a "third landscape", since the vegetation grew spontaneously for some years, on a vacant and not waterproofed land where there is only a small building where radar equipment was located. The "public conquest" of the site took place with a guerrilla gardening event, during the Transnational Meeting in November 2016.

Before this event, a large phase of participatory urban planning has been carried out with the inhabitants and the city associations, in order to establish the functions, methods of use and other issued related to the re-use of the area. The guerrilla gardening, conducted by the Coloco landscape designers, was intended as a proper "collective project", during which the pedestrian routes were traced, and the alignments and essences of the trees to be located on the site were decided; the elements of biodiversity spontaneously raised on the site were recognized to be preserved in the future. Some schools in the neighbourhood have been involved, as well as associations, ordinary citizens and politicians. In addition, all the representatives of the Sub>Urban network attended the event, and each city planted a tree in memory of the day of exchange and sowing of the new future of the fringe of Casoria.

Subsequently, park cleaning and small movements of the ground were carried out, with funds taken from the municipal budget. Currently, the Via Michelangelo site is used for temporary events. Some infrastructural works are being completed (services and water well) while public facilities have been acquired for free, through a sponsorship invitation (in transparency, as part of the participatory process of the local action group).

In this park, the process of co-management will be also tested. The characteristics of the process have been debated too for some months in the ULG and could be approved by the City Council for all other public areas not used in the city (action A2).

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Time: Action projected in the short time. The park will be permanently opened to the public with the occasion of the final event of Sub> Urban, even if its construction will continue in the following years, in line with the landscape project.

Link with the objectives: O1. Increase the amount of natural areas; O2. Increase the amount and quality of space for public use; O3. Creation of new job opportunities; O8. Ecological and public reconnection on a regional scale.

Nature of the financing: The Municipality has allocated 120,000 euros from the municipal budget for the basic adaptation and renovation works, necessary for the public use of the space. The furniture was acquired for free through a form of sponsorship "authorized" by the ULG within the participatory process. Even the fence will be redeveloped by private investors who will place advertising panels on the high-traffic road in exchange for the renovation itself.

Note: all participatory planning, co-design and co-construction procedures tested in this first project will be applied to the planned actions that follow. A section of the “Charter” referred to point A2 could regulate these procedures.

A2. Regulation of co-management and civic uses (“Charter”) In the Ulg there has been a deep debate on how to regulate the use and management of unused public spaces, to be reconquered for public life, such as public green spaces and social spaces. Furthermore, it was considered that these spaces could offer new job opportunities, linked to the planting of productive woods and crops for the biofuel, the agriculture and the commercialization of local products, the plant nursery, the establishment of innovative start-ups in the fields of environmental sustainability.

The draft regulation provides for the opportunity to “divide in three" the abandoned / underutilized public property: granting part of the area to no-profit associations; leaving a portion of the park open and always accessible; a last portion, could be destined to sustainable production (for example to the localization of a plant nursery or agricultural gardens), asking in exchange the care of the public green spaces, in order to create job opportunities and local economic and sustainable development. The reactivation of this type of areas and buildings would be flanked - entering in synergy with it - by a parallel action of revitalization of marginal areas, mostly unbuilt, of private property.

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The rules for the social reuse of abandoned or underused private space are instead contained in the Operational Plan for the Big Park (to be approved with the Structural Plan) and provide for the possibility of modest service constructions in exchange for a public use and re-naturalization of the vacant and - sometimes - damaged lots, the increase of permeable surfaces and the planting of already grown trees coming from other sites Time: Action projected in the short time. A final draft of the Charter will be presented during the final event of Urbact and will be proposed to the City Council for approval.

Link with the objectives: O2. Increase the amount and quality of spaces for public use; O3. Creation of new job opportunities.

Nature of financing: no financing is required.

A3. Legitimation of the use of the Boccaccio park The other abandoned military area, located in via Boccaccio, near the railway station, has been illegally occupied for some years by some political militants who have cleaned up the space and organized social and recreational activities opened to the neighbourhood and the inhabitants of Casoria.

The area has the same configuration of via Michelangelo park, by size (also about three hectares) and landscape, and it is also a largely vacant area. Two large kerosene tanks for military aircraft, completely buried, define a sort of soft hill, today largely covered with vegetation.

The occupants of the area carry out no-profit social activities and, moreover, the management of the area takes place democratically in assemblies opened to the public. However, this remains a situation of illegality that prevents the Municipality from supplying the park with drinking water or electricity. The squatters participated with a certain constancy in the Ulg and, in turn, our local action group took part in some initiatives they organized. The co-management model requested by the occupants is similar to the one in force in the City of Naples, deriving from some administrative acts issued by the City Council starting from 2015 (www.comune.napoli.it: Acts no. 400/2012, 893/2013, 446/2015, 458/2017).

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The municipal administration of Casoria does not fully agree with the approach of the municipality of Naples but nevertheless intends to resolve the current state of illegality, within a more comprehensive reasoning on co-management: therefore, the approval of the Charter at point A2 could regularize the situation and promote a further redevelopment of the site, even with the use of municipal and regional funds.

Time: Action projected in the short time. An agreement is required to be formalized following the approval of the Charter, in compliance with the rules of co-management that will be valid for all areas in similar physical and legal conditions. Obviously, every decision belongs to the City Council.

Link with the objectives: O1. Increase the amount of natural areas; O2. Increase the amount and quality of spaces for public use; O3. Creation of new job opportunities; O8. Ecological and public reconnection on a regional scale.

Nature of the necessary financing: no funding is required to regulate the current condition of use. Modest funds are required to provide water and electricity supplies. Subsequent upgrading and infrastructure of the site - on the model of those underway in the park in via Michelangelo: toilets, irrigation system, green areas and routes - can be financed by municipal funds or by drawing on the ERDF funds managed by the Region Campania.

A4. Public assembly on Rhodiatoce: start of negotiations Rhodiatoce was one of the first chemical industries established in Casoria in the 50s. Since the beginning of the 80s, the area has been completely unused. The site, whose extension is 16 ha, is located in a strategic position, among the city centre, the railway station, and the southern fringe. For more than twenty years politicians have been debating the future of this area in which, with the previous urban plan, it was not permitted to build new houses or commercial activities. The new Structural Plan provides some basic rules that can be articulated in a flexible way by a transformation project that in turn must be participated and carried out with transparency. The basic rules are: at least half of the lot has to be allocated to public space; realization of mixed uses: residences, tertiary, commercial and services; creation of a social mix, with residences on the free market, mixed with affordable housing and social housing; possible increase of the building index if the restructuring of the area is connected to the decompression of a part of a dense city, or a relocation of buildings incompatible with the restoration of the historical centre. Furthermore, for the formal opening of the negotiations, the Municipality provides certainties on the timing of its definition in exchange for immediate public use of part of the lot, a “passage" in the green, at least a 50% to be sold later.

Time: A public assembly, preliminary to the beginning of the negotiation, can be organized in short time.

For the formal start of negotiations, the Structural Plan must be in full force. Moreover, the area is currently on sale and at this stage it is probable that the current owners is not available to make commitments with the Administration. The time required to complete the transformation, once the agreement is closed, must instead be included in a 10-year time frame.

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Link with objectives: Short time: O2. Increase the amount and quality of spaces for public use; O4. Reopening of brownfields; Average time: O5. Renovate the brownfields; O6. Regenerating dense urban and periurban areas; O7. Promoting the enhancement of the historic centre.

Nature of financing: no public financial commitments is required. The investment for the transformation will be entirely supported by the private sector.

A5. Plan for sustainable mobility, education and basic infrastructural adjustments Today, Casoria is a city where it is very difficult to move by bike or on foot. The causes are so many and not only concern "bad habits". The poor quality of public spaces, both in urban and peri-urban areas, together with the absence of safe and comfortable cycle paths, contribute to encourage travelling by car. In this sense, it seems appropriate to draw up a Sustainable Mobility Plan, an instrument expressly provided for by Italian law, to try and reverse the above described situation. Before impacting with "hard" infrastructures, it is possible, in the short term, to carry out minimal and temporary measures on the most suitable routes, in order to create cycle-pedestrian circuits, introduce "zone 30" and limited traffic areas, promote sustainable mobility through new signage and through education especially for the younger generation.

In this sense, the "focus area" offers itself as a laboratory to test solutions and practice educational activities, to be subsequently transferred to other urban areas. The cycle network must be reconnected to the inter-city routes provided for by the Metropolitan City Plan. In addition, the avenues and paths of sustainable mobility can be characterized, over time, as green penetration axes, with new trees, hedges and - where it is possible - draining pavements.

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Time: The approval of the Sustainable Mobility Plan can take place in a short time and starts with the educational activities (to be carried out in schools, in the new Parks, etc.), the reform of road signs, the progressive introduction of traffic restrictions driveway and private parking.

Link with the objectives: O1. Increase of the natural areas; O2. Increase the amount and quality of space for public use; O8. Ecological and public reconnection on a regional scale.

Nature of financing: : modest funding are required for the drafting of the Sustainable Mobility Plan, the reform of road signs in the focus area (where to test the measures), the implementation of "light" appearance changes (painting of the road surface, planting of trees and hedges, etc.) and the educational process. The infrastructural interventions can instead be realized over time, also in relation to additional public funds made available by the Campania Region or other bodies.

A6. Cycle-pedestrian loop A first infrastructural work, triggering the strategy of reconnection and sustainability previously exposed, envisage the creation of a cycle-pedestrian promenade capable of “passing through" all the main priority regeneration sites to be implemented with the key actions of the local action plan.

The route, which is about 7 km long, can be composed of segments that are added over time and progressively improved in comfort, with lighting, cooling, urban furniture, etc., in relation to the development of the A7 solution. In some places, the walk will take place at high altitude, so as to bypass the road arteries and offer unpublished landscapes.

Time: the closure of the loop should be projected over the five-year period (short-medium time), while the first segments can be realized in the short term, with a priority for the connection between the new park in via Michelangelo and the city centre. No expropriation of any private area is required, any passage in private areas of shopping centres (parking areas) can be negotiated on a case-by-case basis, in relation to the best accessibility allowed by the sustainable public path.

Link with the objectives: O2. Increased amount and quality of space for public use; O8. Ecological and public reconnection on a regional scale.

Nature of the necessary financing: funding is required for the construction of the new pedestrian cycle infrastructure (walkways, bridges, paths) and for the adaptation of existing roads. The necessary funds, estimated at â‚Ź 1 million, will be partly charged by the municipal budget and partly included in the Community funds spending program, to be requested from the Campania Region.

A7. Park of the arts Near the Via Michelangelo Park, it is planned the construction of a park dedicated to art, where the exhibitions from the museum of contemporary art (CAM) and other exhibition facilities (even with spaces for music, poetry, and popular culture) can be located. However, the project will have to be designed with prevalence of public green spaces, and it has to be considered as an integral part of the network of periurban parks designed in the municipal plan. The site where this function is located is particularly significant because it would allow to reconnect the two former military areas of via Michelangelo and via Boccaccio, with the Rhodiatoce and a district of affordable housing, now isolated within the first suburbs of the city. Furthermore, this area is already partly owned by the Municipality.

Time: the construction of the museum centre necessitates a time for the expropriation of part of the areas (while about 10,000 square meters are already public property), in addition to the construction time per se. The scenario of completion of the project is to be projected in the medium-short time (5 years).

Link with the objectives: O1. Increasing the amount of natural and wooded areas; O2. Increased amount and quality of space for public use. O6C. Regenerating pre-existing settlements (with attention to public initiative districts).

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Nature of the financing: funding is required for the acquisition of the areas and for the implementation of the interventions. The intervention will be financed with community funds managed by the Campania Region. The cost is estimated at 3.5 million euros.

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A8. No. Wall: S. New Openness. Wide Accessible Local Life: Scenarios.

It is an integrated set of actions focused on an area characterized by public facilities (some of which are abandoned), and which is located between the city center and the fringe, along the link to the new Park of via Michelangelo. Currently, the area is characterized by large, waterproofed surfaces where each public building is enclosed in its own precincts.

The area is located in a district involved in critical socio-economic phenomena and concentration of poverty: it is inhabited by people with lower incomes and less education, besides by increasingly number of migrants. Some buildings have been abandoned and then partially sublet to immigrants.

Because of the age of the drainage system there are flooding problems and collapse of buildings risks caused by water infiltration in raining periods.

The proposal was prepared - together with the University of Naples Federico II: Departments of Architecture, Engineering and Hospital University - on the occasion of the first UIA call of 2016, and is already approved by the administration. In summary, it is envisaged: 1) structuring a public campus of facilities, putting in greater reciprocal relation the pre-existing structures (schools, swimming pool, sports hall, and other public buildings), eliminating the fences that separate each structure from the other contiguous; 2) recovering existing facilities, today only partially used (such as the former Tribunal and the Slaughterhouse) for the realization of social housing, to welcome migrants and refugees and to promote innovative forms of social housing, in support of the weaker sections present in the contiguous historic central area; 3) renovating existing buildings with interventions that ensure greater environmental sustainability of the structures, improving the quality of building envelopes and exploiting sources of photovoltaic energy and more generally renewable sources; 4) renovating the wide, unbuilt spaces as a green park with large pools of water, with functions of cooling and irrigation for the green urban areas. Overall, the No: Walls campus is a settlement aimed at being self-sufficient in terms of energy and recycling of the water resource. From the functional point of view, the existing public facilities will be joined by receptive structures and facilities for the training and promotion of social economic activities. Currently, some of the buildings included in the regeneration program are being renovated under the 2019 “Universiade� context.

The general purpose of the project is to foster integration of vulnerable social groups, such as the elderly, migrants and refugees, the new poors, by reducing cultural gaps and creating job opportunities, enhancing local resources.

The proposal aims to improve the quality of life in the city centre, characterized by traffic congestion, lack of public spaces and green areas, low quality housing. The proposed solutions are intended to meet the challenges of energy transition by means of: renewable energy sources; energy efficiency; new permeable areas; promotion of walking and cycling tours.

This proposal is meant to offer a "pilot project", which could also be considered repeatable in other similar neighbourhoods, both in urban and international context. The innovation concerns not only the participatory planning process, which is widely inclusive, but also the working co-management between the municipality and associations.

Time: the realization of the program foresees a time of three years. An estimated investment of 3.5 million euros is required, basing on the European funds managed by the Campania Region.

Link with the objectives: O1. Increasing the amount of natural and wooded areas; O2. Increased amount and quality of space for public use. O3. Creation of new job opportunities.

Nature of the financing: funding is requested for the acquisition of the areas and for the realization of the interventions. The intervention will be financed with community funds managed by the Campania Region. The cost is estimated at 3.5 million euros.

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A9. CAR: MEN. Casoria Remix: Motion, Energy, Nature.

This is an integrated set of actions centred along the Road of the Americans (SP1) along which there are large "unaddressed" areas, mixed with dense parts, composed of shopping centres and production facilities.

The proposal - prepared together with the University of Naples Federico II and some innovative start-ups in the field of alternative energy sources - was developed during the second UIA call for tenders in 2017 and already approved by the administration. It envisages the construction of a systemic innovation, capable of transforming the kinetic energy produced by vehicular traffic flows along the main roads, into electricity, which can be used to support the development and care of a continuous linear forest resting on a network. of "wastescapes": abandoned or underused areas and / or large parking / storage areas for production activities. These marginal spaces are reusable within a territorial recycling vision and in the perspective of greater integration with the surrounding areas. Moreover, they can become the engine of transformations capable of affecting the metabolism of urban systems. In fact, by exploiting the new technologies capable of transforming current road traffic, it is possible to generate electricity that is useful for the nourishing system of new urban forests (hydraulic pumps, irrigation systems, etc.) which, in turn, absorb the produced CO2 from cars transforming it into Oxygen necessary for human life.

This vision is complementary and not an alternative to that of sustainable mobility because road traffic can be concentrated only along the main infrastructural arteries, favouring instead soft mobility in urban and periurban areas.

The forestation - initially extended on public areas extended for about 15 hectares with a prospect of doubling on private areas during the five years - begins in public areas and subsequently develops in private areas, also thanks to the incentives aimed at the enhancement of surplus of electricity produced by the transformation of vehicular kinematics.

The network consists of several elements: 1) Water reservoirs useful for storing the first rain water recovered from roads, parking lots, air conditioning systems, that can be recycled and purified thanks to electrical and electrolytic systems.

2) clearings and compact forests, with high visual, sound and environmental mitigation value of preexisting driveways. The whole green network is crossed by the cycle-pedestrian ring referred to action A6; the ring takes advantage of summer lighting and cooling systems powered by clean electricity.

The development of the forest in private areas is stimulated by incentives that can be provided by supplying clean energy at a controlled price in exchange for certain sustainability measures: 1) the energy efficiency of buildings and the creation of additional alternative energy sources (such as photovoltaics); 2) the redevelopment of parking and storage areas with permeable floors and trees; 3) the implementation of a separate waste collection network, in the main malls placed along the commercial strip.

Time: the implementation of the program includes a three-year activation time (public areas) and a “five year" extension to private areas. An estimated investment of 4 million euros is required, available from European funds managed by the Campania Region.

Link with the objectives: O1. Increasing the amount of natural and wooded areas; O2. Increased amount and quality of space for public use. O8. Ecological and public reconnection on a regional scale.

Nature of the financing: funding is requested for the realization of the interventions. The intervention will be financed with community funds managed by the Campania Region.

The cost is estimated at 4.0 million euros.

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A10. Agency for the management of Empty Dwelling & Productive Spaces Many apartments remain vacant because the owners are not willing to entrust them to people with low income. The creation of a municipal agency that "guarantees" rents, and helps to bring together supply and demand, could help regenerate entire residential sectors in crisis. The same strategy is applicable to large disused or underutilized production halls that could host innovative start-ups, thanks to adequate guarantees that could be provided by the Agency.

Time: This is an innovative management experiment in all of southern Italy, to be built in institutional collaboration. The implementation time may be short but requires political support and increase of administrative staff.

Link with the objectives: O3. Creation of new job opportunities. O6. Regeneration of dense urban and periurban areas; O7. Promotion of the enhancement of the historic centre Nature of the financing: funding is required for the Agency's management activities and for providing adequate financial guarantees. The intervention could be tested in the focus area and financed with community funds managed by the Campania Region.

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Action

Description

Time

Funding

A0. Approval of the structural plan

Action “0", preparatory to all the others; the Local Action Plan, is strongly consistent with the Structural Plan, which will be accompanied by the first operational plan of the "Great Park".

Short-term

Update and participatory process: 40.000 euro.

A1. Realization of Michelangelo Park

The area of via Michelangelo - a former disused military site - acquired in the context of "state federalism" is set to become a public park.

Short-term

To complete the green works and renovate the abandoned military building, there is estimated an additional investment of 300.000 euro.

A2. Regulation of comanagement and civic uses

The meetings of the local action group discussed how to regulate the use and management of unused public spaces, to be claimed to public life, in terms of green and social spaces.

Short-term. A final draft of the Regulation will be presented together with Urbact LAP to promote the approval.

No funding necessary.

A3. Legitimation of the use of Via Boccaccio park

Another disused military area, acquired in implementation of the "state federalism", used without authorization by activists since a couple of years. The approval of the Regulation referred to in point A2 will legitimize the current use.

Short-term. An agreement is required to be formalized following the approval of the Regulation at point A2.

No funding necessary to legitimize and regulate the current situation of uses.

A4. Public assembly on Rhodiatoce: start of negotiations.

The new Structural Plan provides some basic rules that can be articulated flexibly in the context of a participatory and transparent project, to be defined in an Operational Programme.

Short-term. A public and preparatory assembly needs to be summoned.

No public funding are required. The investment will come only from private sector.

A5. Plan for sustainable mobility, education and basic infrastructural adjustments

Before impacting with "hard" infrastructures, it is possible, in the short term, to carry out minimal and temporary measures on the most suitable routes, in order to create cyclepedestrian circuits, introduce "zone 30" and limited traffic areas, promote sustainable mobility through new signage and through education for the younger generation.

Short-term. The approval of the Sustainable Mobility Plan can take place in a short time and starts with the educational activities (to be carried out in schools, in the new Parks, etc.).

Modest funding are required for the drafting of the Sustainable Mobility Plan, the reform of road signs in the focus area: 80.000 euro

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A6. Cycle-pedestrian loop

A first infrastructural work, triggering the strategy of reconnection and sustainability previously exposed, envisage the creation of a cycle-pedestrian promenade capable of “passing through" all the main priority regeneration sites to be implemented with the key actions of the local action plan.

Short-medium term. The closure of the loop should be projected over a 5 years period.

Funding is required for the construction of the pedestrian cycle infrastructure (walkways, bridges, paths) and for the adaptation of existing roads.

Estimated needed funds are: 1 million euro

A7. Park of the arts

Near the Via Michelangelo Park, it is planned the construction of a park dedicated to art, where the exhibitions from the museum of contemporary art (CAM) and other exhibition facilities (even with spaces for music, poetry, and popular culture) can be located.

Short-medium term. The scenario of completion of the project is to be projected over a 5 years period.

The intervention will be financed with community funds managed by the Campania Region.

The cost is estimated at: 3.5 million euro

A8. No. Wall: S _New Openness. Wide Accessible Local Life: Scenarios.

It is an integrated set of actions focused on an area characterized by public facilities (some of which are abandoned), and which is located between the city centre and the fringe, along the link to the new Park of via Michelangelo.

Long term.

The realization of the program foresees a time of three years.

Funding is requested for the acquisition of the areas and for the realization of the interventions. The cost is estimated at: 3.5 million euro

A9. CAR: MEN _Casoria Remix: Motion, Energy, Nature.

This is an integrated set of actions centred along the Road of the Americans (SP1)

Long term.

The implementation of the program includes a threeyear activation time (public areas) and a “five year" extension to private areas.

The cost is estimated at: 4.0 million euro

A10. Agency for the management of Empty Dwellings & Productive Spaces

The creation of a municipal agency that "guarantees" rents, and helps to bring together supply and demand, could help regenerate entire residential sectors in crisis.

Long term.

This is an innovative management experiment in all of southern Italy, to be built in institutional collaboration.

Funding is required for the Agency's management activities and for providing adequate financial guarantees.

Estimated funds are not yet available.

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4. Management & Governance structure for the transformation process coordinating IAP implementation with ERDF management The city of Casoria introduced a Management and Control System (Si.Ge.Co.) of the urban transformations to implement the EU programme 2014-2020 actions (ERDF). That system, provided by the UE Regulation, should be used to implement the Local action plan as well, introducing some innovations due to the Urbact III experience. So, different aims could be reached: on one hand, the Urbact III Local Action Plan could use the experience well-established and already checked in Casoria with the EU programme 2007-13; on the other hand, UE 2014-2020 program ERDF, could finance the actions predicted by the IAP. The Campania Region has individuated the City of Casoria as “Organismo intermedio” (intermediate organization) for the period 2014-20, such as the other Campania cities with more than 50.000 inhabitants. Those cities must have an accounting, monitoring and financial reporting system, separated and computerized.

The Regional Management Authority, as responsible organization for the Regional Operational Programme 2014-20 implementation, checks, through the Responsible of the Operational Objective, that the delegated functions are correctly played, through: • the Intermediate Organization's Report Exam; • the exam of the Monitoring Report produced in the context of the CE Regulation: it contains the verifications revision at the Intermediate Organizations level; • random quality verifications on the ordinary checking made by the Intermediate Organizations; • suitability verifications of the managing and monitoring systems adopted by the Intermediate Organizations.

The Responsible of the Operational Objective (the Campania Region) also checks periodically the managing and monitoring systems adjustment to any observations or new ongoing regulations.

The Intermediate Organization is responsible, in the limits of the delegation given, of the objectives assigned management, according to the safe financial management, transparency and good administration principle. So, any Intermediate Organization must: • collaborate with the Delegating Authority – the Campania Region - at any level of the implementing process, on the acquisition of information and data, making the Authority able to apply any form of control; • inform the potential beneficiaries, trough adequate forms of information and participatory processes involving citizens and stakeholders; • implement the investigatory phase for the selection of the beneficiaries and the relative operations; • communicate to the Responsible of the Operational Objective (the Campania Region) the ranking list of the beneficiaries and the relative eligible operations; • stipulate an act of commitment with the Beneficiary that specifies precise obligations and reciprocal responsibilities (funds granted, project to realize, documentation to be produced, etc.); • support the beneficiaries on the predisposition of a separate account system or an adequate accounting codification for any transaction related to the operation;

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• • • •

•

check the adequate execution of the operations from an administrative, financial and technical point of view; acquire and file the reporting and documentation related to the costs incurred by the Beneficiary; prepare and issue the mandate / payment order relating to the advance payments and the balance of the contribution to the Beneficiary; ensure that the data relating to the procedural, physical and financial progress of the operation are provided to the Responsible of Operational Objective through the Regional information system; transmit to the Managing Authority and the Responsible of the Operational Objective the declaration of expenditure with the attachments.

general principles of the management and control systems The Intermediate Organizations in the exercise of the delegated functions adopt a management and control system in compliance with the provisions of the EC Regulations; in particular, it complies with the following general principles: 1. definition of the functions of the organizations involved in the management and control and the division of functions within each organization; 2. compliance with the principle of separation of functions between these organizations and within them; 3. specification of procedures to guarantee the correctness and regularity of the expenses declared in the Operational Program; 4. specification of the computerized accounting, surveillance and financial information systems adopted;

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5. specification of the provisions envisaged for the verification of the systems functioning; 6. description of the systems adopted and of the procedures to guarantee an adequate audit trail; 7. definition of information and monitoring procedures for irregularities and recovery of amounts unduly paid.

The Management and Control System (Si.Ge.Co.) adopted by the Intermediate Organization (City of Casoria) provides, inter alia, for the identification of the office responsible for making the "ordinary" checks. This Intermediate Organization's Office is autonomous and independent from the one that manages the implementation operations.

conformity requirements for the control and management system For the effective entrustment of the delegation of functions, the Region previously verifies the ability of the candidate Intermediate Organization to fulfil the duties of competence, that consists in the verification of compliance with the provisions of the EC Regulations.

The Management and Control System (Si.Ge.Co), as structured, gives the biggest attention to the qualitative and technical control of the implementation of transformation interventions also in relation to the aspects of economic and financial sustainability, and this is consistent with the EC Regulations, the effectiveness of which was verified in the previous 2007-2013 programming, as well as the critical issues especially in relation to the public participation of the choices.

The need matured in the context of the Urbact experience determined the decision to propose the introduction, within the Si.Ge.Co., of a bigger attention also to the "social control", both in planning and in the implementation of transformation processes. To this end, within the organization chart a specific office has been added: the "Unit for information and sharing", whose task is to implement a process of participation and continuous and permanent sharing, the “public arena� where choices can be developed, but at the same time where the results can be measured through a continuous social control. The stakeholders will be involved and will be able to bring their contribution within the public area. The results of the public processes and actions may also propose changes and additions to the transformation process. These changes will be submitted to the "programming unit" after a specific verification carried out by the unit for monitoring and evaluation. The results of the verifications and evaluations will again be submitted to the examination of the public arena, whose final decision will be submitted to the City Authority. The system tends to permanent control, but at the same time it produces reflections and proposals to enrich the transformation process.

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5. General idea dealing with the transformation of the entire fringe in the future the IAP as a testing laboratory for the innovation As already mentioned, the Integrated Action Plan (IAP) developed for Sub>Urban, tries to put into practice the Sbs strategy on which the Structural Plan is based. The focus area of the Local Action Plan covers about 320 hectares south of the main residential area, in an area characterized by the co-existence of residential areas, productive areas and abandoned facilities, large infrastructures and residual urban voids. Starting from the re-activation of the "forgotten" areas - underutilized, abandoned, marginal - and from their connection, through public and ecological corridors, the local action plan aims to create the conditions for future urban regeneration actions, involving even dense, complicated, low quality and in crisis urban parts, which is difficult to renovate due to the high fragmentation of ownership. A key role is played by the regeneration of disused industrial areas, located between the dense urban centre and the first periurban belt.

design with hybrid metabolisms The Local Action Plan is based on a steb-by-step strategy which, starting from the implementation of immediately feasible interventions, intends to promote an overall transformation, following an eco-sustainable and inclusive approach. The gradual increase in trust among people is interpreted as a lever for change (Formato, 2016).

In ecological terms, the proposed approach is culturally grounded in Ian McHarg’s “Design with Nature” (1969) but with a new focus on hybrid organisms regarded as constitutive mixes of natural and anthropic elements. Although the Landscape Urbanism philosophy rejects the opposition of nature and city implied in McHarg’s environmental planning theory, its planning approach and design methods can be traced to McHarg’s experiments performed in the 1960s and 1970s at the University of Pennsylvania. First, one has to underline the importance of scientific methodology and technical skill in contemporary urban and landscape design: the loss of centrality of architectural aesthetic research, in favour of a revolutionary process (as in Design with Nature), although never deterministically determined: “…the landscape is transformed by layers. It is not the fix anticipation of a project. Each layer is new and transforms the previous one. The first layer entails nothing more than earth movement, ditches, meadows, sapling, stakes mainly, perhaps a road” (Desvigne, 2012, p. 25).

The concept of “urban nature”, as a synergy among different kinds of things and actors, plays a fundamental role and leads to metabolism studies. In this perspective, there is no longer a boundary in the nature/culture divide: the metabolic function includes the human-social metabolism, the human-productive metabolism, as well as non-human metabolisms. Material interaction drives the real changes of urban settlements.

In chemistry, metabolism is usually divided into two categories: ‘catabolism’ that breaks down organic matter and harvests energy by way of cellular respiration and “anabolism” that uses energy to construct components of cells such as proteins and nucleic acids. In the urban metabolism vision, several different elements and actors (human and non-human, natural and anthropic ones), might generate catabolic or anabolic chains with a positive or negative energy balance: planning activities become spatial and temporal moments of heterogeneous reactions oriented to generate energy needed to reach strategic targets.

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In the Casoria case, the strategy aims at triggering transforming reactions starting from elementary, catabolic processes. This catabolism will generate the energy useful to more complex anabolic processes through the reform of urban high-density areas, the reclamation of the abandoned industrial precincts, and historical settlements restoration. Real transformations, although initially smallscaled, are essential for the success of the planned activities. That is why the plans begins from simpler actions: temporary public uses of abandoned lands (playgrounds, common gardens, open marketplace), massive planting of trees and hedges, and steady reconstruction of pedestrian, cycling and ecological paths.

An important focus is dedicated to environmental sustainability with attention to the implementation of closed metabolic cycles (waste, water, energy): the rainwater collected in sealed industrial precincts, stored in detention and phytoremediation basins, will be used for irrigation of the periurban forest and vegetable gardens; the natural cycle of the forest, supported by energy produced by photovoltaic panels, kinetic energy due to the vehicular traffic, and from the treatment of organic waste, will contribute to the production of thermo-electric energy; the cycle of the forest, supported by energy produced by green energy will contribute to the environmental remediation, offering new Oxygen for the biological life and new public spaces.

This green field is programmed to penetrate the densest urban systems, disassembling the current compact structure of the inner settlements and producing new topologic and ecologic continuities; in short, a new hybrid (green-urban) pattern.

a “new deal� between the city core and the fringe The general idea on which the IAP is based is to "reciprocally" contaminate the different urban parts, with the aim of promoting new forms of integration. A "new deal" between the fringe and the city centre is auspicated, connecting the transformations that can be activated in each of the different urban within a unified strategy, capable of amplifying the local results by triggering chains of "winwin games".

In practice, this means, for example, working on forms of incentive that allow to "transfer" over time construction quantities and functions from one part of the city to another: densifying the areas now

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abandoned or the sprawl and, conversely, promoting the infiltration of ecological and environmental systems in denser and more chaotic urban areas.

learning from the city core Regarding the density and the mix of functions, the fringe has to learn from the city centre, where urban life is very active, in order to maintain a strong integration between residence, services, businesses and small retail activities. This functional mixitĂŠ can be a model for periurban parts where the functions are much more segregated and dispersed. In this perspective, it is not enough to propose greater functional flexibility "inside" buildings, but it is also necessary to intensify the use of large open and / or under-utilized open spaces.

learning from the fringe On the contrary, the city center - very compact and without green spaces - could "import" some features from the settlements in the fringe. In particular, it should be pursued a greater porosity - to be obtained in the medium-long-time – meaning the "selective" thinning of the low-quality building fabric and in incipient crisis. The renewal of the first urban Ring ("first crown", result of the 1st wave of urban sprawl in the mid-sixties) aims to decompress building volumes, upgrade the remaining housing stock and balance the housing function, public facilities and private service industries. This operation should in any case be conducted on the basis of negotiated processes, without any form of top-down imposition.

scale matters The last question concerns issues of scale that interfere with the current institutional set-up. It is evident that the magnitude of the problems and the related challenges of transformation could benefit from a coordinated intervention at regional scale, which is substantially absent today. At the scale of the single municipality, a lot of issues are difficult to solve, due to properly dimensional causes, and for the lack of adequate technical, human and socio-economic resources.

In this sense, further new agreements should be sought with neighbouring municipalities (Naples, Afragola, Acerra, Cardito, Casalnuovo, etc.), in order to promote integrated regeneration strategies with new administrative aggregations, based on the model of what is happening today in the AgglomĂŠration parisienne. In this way, new opportunities could be exploited in the periphery north of Naples, starting from the implementation of the new high-speed train station realization, located in the Municipality of Afragola but only 3 km from the focus area of Casoria Sub> Urban project.

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6. Further information brief recap Casoria is the fifth city in Naples Metropolitan City and the biggest municipality in northern Naples area. Naples Metropolitan City has over 3,2 million inhabitants living in 92 cities which are all linked to each other. Until the end of the ‘70s Casoria was a major industrial centre, hosting important steel and chemical industries. When production activities stopped, factories and industrial sites were abandoned and Casoria developed a strong service sector. Today the service sector is also in a crisis.

Inhabitants are leaving because of traffic congestion, unemployment, low quality settlements, poor quality housing, inadequate infrastructures (roads, equipment) and a lack of public green.

In 2013 the City Council of Casoria decided to create a new municipal development plan (P.U.C.Municipal Urban Masterplan). This has led to the approval of a Structure Plan for the municipal area and a first Operational Plan which includes the development of a big public park.

The SBS-lab was founded in 2013, for the drafting of the new structural plan. It is made up of technicians form Municipality and professors and researchers of the Department of Architecture of University of Naples “Federico II” (DiARC).

The city of Casoria, with the collaboration of the DiARC, has participated in the sub>urban network since the first phase, obtaining in 2015 the European funding with the city of Antwerp as lead partner. In recent years, the activity of the laboratory has been focused on the definition of the Local Action Plan of Urbact, through a wide participatory process.

In 2016 and 2017, the Sbs Lab produced proposals for the Urban Innovative Actions calls. These programmes are now collected in the Local Action Plan.

credits The Sbs Lab is composed by: 1) Municipality of Casoria: Salvatore Napolitano (Local coordinator and responsible), Francesca Avitabile (First level controller), Linda Clarino, Bianca Senese, Pasquale Volpe, Pietro Salomone. 2) DiARC, University of Naples: prof. Michelangelo Russo (responsible), Enrico Formato (Project coordinator), Anna Attademo, Francesca Scafuto.

The Local Action Plan has been co-designed; however, the authors of the text are: Enrico Formato and Salvatore Napolitano, with Anna Attademo, Francesca Avitabile and Pasquale Volpe.

All drawings have been prepared by the laboratory. Alessandro Capozzoli is the author of some photos and of the cover. Miguel Georgieff from Atelier Coloco (Paris) led the “guerrilla gardening” in the park. We also thank for the collaboration: Gennaro Alfano, Danilo Capasso, Francesco Frulio, Chiara Menchise, Marika Miano, and Michele Moffa.

A special mention to Prefect Silvana Riccio, without whom none of this work would be possible; thanks to the mayor Pasquale Fuccio and the alderman Marianna Ricciardi, who have given us their support from 2016 onwards.

Finally, our acknowledgment to: all the citizens and associations that have participated to the process, and particularly to Teresa Blasotti and Tommaso Arcella (I’Mobility); Giusiana Russo (Legambiente Afragola); Cooperativa Millepiedi; Filomena Simonelli and Annamaria Casolaro (Istituto comprensivo “Mauro Mitilini”); the enterprises that have financially supported the implementation of the Via Michelangelo Park: Immobiliare Rosy s.r.l and Cosmo s.p.a.

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