Monza, Italy

The city and commune of Monza (population 120,000) is located in the Lombardy region of northern Italy about nine miles north of Milan. According to Falco (2012), the 2007 Plan’s TDR provisions begin with a simple concept: receiving sites have an actual building ratio achievable by right and a higher potential ratio that can only be reached when developers transfer development rights from areas planned for public infrastructure.

However, 75 percent of the development rights transferred from the public (sending) areas must be used for non-residential development, leaving only 25 percent to support additional residential development. This often means that developers have to acquire more rights than they want in order to take residential projects from the actual to the potential ratio.

In Monza, development proposals are subject to a competition in which the planning commission approves only the best projects. This introduces a high level of uncertainty and added expense, particularly if developers have acquired development rights in advance of project approval.

Monza’s 2007 regulations, like those in Rome, also allows the government to retain from 60 to 80 percent of the development rights, a provision that is not supported by regional planning legislation, leaving the program vulnerable to landowner lawsuits.

Falco (2012) reports that Monza’s 2007 TDR provisions have largely been unused because they are complicated, costly and provide little assurance to developers that they will see their applications approved. Due to a change in government, a new planning process was launched almost immediately upon adoption of the 2007 regulations. This forthcoming plan may resolve some of the issues with the TDR program but as of 2012, it had not been adopted.

Falco, P. (2012) Dealing with Betterment Value: Different Trends between Italy and England. Dissertation prepared for Sapienza University of Rome.