The urban plan of Novara, elaborated in the year 2000 and adopted by the City Council in 2001, has been modified later on the arising of new political and territorial conditions and it will be adopted again within spring 2003.

The elaboration of the plan was assigned to architect Gianfranco Pagliettini in March 2000 through an international competition.

Novara has 102,000 inhabitants and is located in the north-west of Italy, at the crossing point between Turin and Milan. It is in Piedmont and is the second most important town after Turin; however, it is developing towards Lombardia, the region which Novara belonged to for a long period between the 19^th and 20^th century. The town is placed less than 40 Km from Milan and nearly 90 km from Turin; actually, it is part of the Milanese metropolitan area.

Milan is the designated place of economic exchanges with Novara, since it grants directional support to Novara’s traditional industrial sectors (publishing, food and chemical industry).

Milan stands as model for Novara’s modern town; a development model which gives no attention to the appearance, the functionality of the new quarters and to the urban and country landscape. A model that imposes overbearing renewals to the historical center. A model that leads to an expansion of the town with inadequate roads, high density, negative uniformity and with public spaces which are often insufficient in terms of dimension and quality.

While turning its eye toward Milan, Novara grows up in the rich plain of rice cultivation and follows a quite moderate development. This is also due to the fact that Novara is one of the few province towns whose population is not decreasing. During the last thirty years Novara’s population has been steady and has fortified, where this decrease took place in nearly all the big and middle size towns of western Europe, due both to the deep crisis of industry and to the urban decentralization.

However, the urban plan has to face a different situation today.

Several news, not necessarily connected to the town, have changed the perspective.

The most important events are three:

• the realization of "Malpensa 2000" new intercontinental airport which is placed less then 25 Km from Novara and nearly 50 km from Milan;

• the realization of "Turin-Milan" high speed railway, which is part of the European Barcelona-Kiev axis;

• the expansion project of the Genoa-Sempione-Northern Europe railway.

Novara is aware that its historic role as road and railway crossing, which was important but not too much engaging up to now, is growing in a constant and remarkable way. The town is aware that the consequences of such change mean opportunities of economic development but, on the other hand, menace the quality of urban life and the development sustenaibility.

The studies for the plan pointed out the main weak points of the town:

• the old railway network, which crosses and entangles in the heart of the town , thus splitting it in eight parts;

• an insufficient accessibility to highway and motorway from industrial and logistic areas;

• the scarcity of public spaces and facilities, which makes Novara hardly attractive and receptive;

• a urban ad rural landscape which tends to uniform its differences and lose its identity.

As a consequence, a state of apathy might transform Novara into a sort of dock and, eventually, into a satellite of Milan.

Novara’s urban plan faces this challenge by two levels of actions.

The first level involves the general reorganization of urban functionality and equipments combined with urban and rural landscape reconstruction. This plan is carried out through:

• the reorganisation of local mobility in order to drastically decrease the transit traffic in the urban central area and facilitate the access of goods directly to the highway;

• the reorganisation and relocation of industries in more accessible areas, thus allowing the urban recuperation of abandoned areas. This very important step will provide the new areas with public services (overall urban parks);

• the recuperation of the urban borders on the outskirts of the town which were abandoned and never completed;

• the development of logistics with an adequate dimension;

• the reorganisation of the railway central area;

• the reconstruction of the " doors of the town";

• the exploitation of monuments and historical heritage, in the historical center and in the whole territory;

• the offer of new type of building with a lower;

• the realisation of a strong system of parks and of a green framework, which was absolutely deficient up to now. The aim is to create a greenbelt equipped with cycle-pedestrian ways all around the town outskirts and along the rivers up to the countryside where the plan foresees the recovery of traditional vegetation along the fields and the transformation of intensive cultivation into a traditional and ecological one.

The plan has been drawn up involving:

• the private implementers, who are invited to provide public spaces and new equipments, as a condition to build new quarters (the plan foresees 4,000,000 square meters of new public spaces at no costs for the municipality);

• the farmers, who are involved in the urban development and are asked to realise a sustainable reconversion of the rural territory and landscape.

The second level of the plan is based on strategic interventions, to be realised with the main companies such as TAV s.p.a. (High Speed Railway), Ferrovie s.p.a. (Railways), ENEL (electric energy), CIM (intermodal platform), etc.

Some of the main strategic interventions are shown in the enclosed pictures and are shortly described as follows.

1 – Reorganisation of railway network.

The new High Speed railway in the north-east direction will manage to face the strong increase of railway traffic in the next ten years. The north-south railway, having two tracks which cross the town in a narrow passage, will face insuperable difficulties as it is impossible to widen it.

The plan, in agreement with the company Ferrovie s.p.a., proposes to deviate the north-south railway route toward east with a four-track system set beside the High Speed railway.

Such solution does not "hurt" the town; on the contrary, by only adding few links, it takes four railway routes away from the urban area, thus eliminating four historic barriers. What once was a source of urban division will now become an important element of urban rejoining: the new boulevards of Novara.

Works are planned to start in 2006.

2. - New railway station.

The old station, near to the historic center, will soon be unable to face the new traffic, whose increase is expected for 2006 on the opening of the first part of the High Speed railway and of the link with Malpensa airport.

Besides, the old station is a wall on the east side of the town (industrial and research areas, the university area, the popular quarters) that must be opened.

The new station is meant to become a three-side system which will coordinate urban, international and airport traffic.

Just beside the new station there is a wide military and productive area, partly abandoned and partly undervalued. Inside this area there is a faculty of Novara University (pharmacy) as well as some top level centers of research on advanced chemistry.

At present a company specialised in urban transformation is preparing a feasibility study for the reconversion of the above-mentioned areas into a scientific and technologic center, just in accordance to the plan.

The intermodal platfom (C.I.M.) has been partially realised on a 400,000 square meters area. The plan foresees its widening up to 2,000,000 s.m., in addition to a 2,000,00 s.m. area for the activities connected to logistics. The area will be located on the east part of the town, near the entrance to the highway. Thanks to its shape and dimension it will be possible to build a new railway platform beside the existing one. The final result will be an efficient integrated system of railway platforms and stations .

The main interventions combine with the program of material and functional requalification of the town. The examples just shown in points 2, 3 and 4, represent elements of the main framework of the town and, at the same time, provide the town with elements of identity and characterization of its quarters. These quarters are cut out from the town center and are inhabited mostly by medium/low income working class people. The plan gives special attention to them, as it foresees the creation of the two main parks, the improvement of the new station, the building of logistics and research centers. All these elements will be strongly related and will provide the quarters with an identity.

Novara’s plan has just been elaborated but its results are already visible, thanks to the method adopted for its creation, i.e. the agreement of all the parts involved. Such method had already been adopted in the past with the "Programs of Urban Requalification" and the "Programs of Urban Requalification and Sustainable Development of the Territory".

The result of five years of open dialogue between private owners and public administrators has been a series pf projects and works which can deeply change the town. An example is the rearrangement of the High Tension system in order to avoid electromagnetic contamination of some quarters, for which the company TAV spa and the municipality have given financial support. Besides, new external investors have joined in the realisation of works for urban and environmental renovation.

In such a new situation Novara also has to face more efficiently the management of the actions promoted by the plan: in a more and more engaging way, since our local administrations are not yet used to.