City investments planned for Lugano in 2022

Let’s take a look

First a preliminary remark: when you read «important projects» and «next year» during this period one cannot help but to think of the Sports and Events Centre. However, the PSE will most probably not be thinking in terms of investment. This is because the costs will be the responsibility of private partners and the City will pay a leasing for 27 years of up to 167 million plus interest. A lease which, as mayor Michele Foletti explains, «will be accounted for in the current management». A deliberate solution «not to weigh too heavily on the debt», which could have blocked other investments. In the event of exceptional depreciation, those would go to the investment account. As well as, in any event, the athletic track.

Each year between 11 and 12 million euros are blocked in investments of cantonal or consortia (next year, among others, 2.5 million euros will go to the CDALED for the modernization of the water treatment plants and 5.1 million euros will go to the fund for the implementation of the Lugano Transport Plan), in 2022 ten million euros will be invested in just two projects, which are among the main investments of the city in the last years: the creation of the new headquarters of the Urban Spaces Division at Piano della Stampa and the development of the Sports Center at Maglio a short distance away. Each of them will receive five million. It must be pointed out that these are not the entire construction costs, but rather the instalments that are expected to be spent this year. The new headquarters of the DSU should cost 55 million in all, and the Maglio 37. Therefore, these are two projects that will account for the lion’s share of investments for some time to come.

Old and new construction sites

On the subject of major projects, the investment account also shows the most recent and highly talked-about construction site for a high-impact project: the installation of high-quality paving (and the arrangement of the various substructures) in the city center. A site whose costs have risen compared to what was expected and that is coming to an end: in 2022, in particular for the work in progress in Via Pretorio, it is planned to spending another 1.2 million.

The upcoming year will also be one of important investments in the IT infrastructure of the municipal administration, which will be renewed for 3.5 million. A step that will also touch the city data center, which is about to move to Viganello in the former Swisscom building. A building that must, nevertheless, be prepared to host it: the costs in this sense are expected to amount to one million francs.

Parks and woods

Several investments have been made also on the urban green, starting from parks. The assembly of Lugano Region in recent months has agreed to transfer the park San Grato in Carona to the City, and the message to the City Council is expected soon: the purchase price, including buildings, was set at 2.8 million. Still on the subject of parks, a million has been budgeted for the final design of Parco Viarno. The sum also includes a photographic reportage. Furthermore There will also be investments in the forests: one million for the protection of the Boglia forest and one million for the priority interventions identified in the Forestry Plan.

News with a four-year horizon

The Municipality of Lugano, in its budget, does not only account for the investments planned for the coming year, but also for the new work planned for the next four years. Last year, for example, the list included the possible purchase of the RSI buildings in Besso (indicative figure: over 20 million) to install a new center of cultural production related to music.

Instead, this year there was nothing as striking (and financially demanding). The most expensive project concerns the home-school route: 6.5 million to implement measures that emerged as a result of a study carried out in 2018. In the leisure area, on the other hand, 6 million is planned for the special maintenance and renovation of playgrounds and neighborhood fields. Switching to sports facilities, the municipal indoor swimming pool will need work (extraordinary maintenance, 4 million), as well as Resega and Reseghina (renovation of plant and infrastructure, 2.5 million). Turning instead to «minor» works, we point out the intention to endow the Art Museum Foundation of Italian Switzerland with 800,000 francs to purchase works of art, as well as to allocate 400,000 francs for a competition to design Piazza Pestalozzi in the station.