Public Real Estate Assets and the Metropolitan Strategic Plan in Italy. The Two Cases of Milan and Cagliari

The process of economic transition from the old to the new economy produces significant effects also on cities and territories. The change in the production cycles has led to numerous and significant phenomena of delocalization and consequent abandonment of buildings and infrastructures, according to the markets. In Italy, starting from the 70 s, the divestment of industrial areas and the more recent Federalism Law have increased the interest on reuse of public properties as an act proper to municipal urban planning. However, the public real estate management (PREM) and the choice of new urban functions to be assigned represents a difficult challenge still today, at all levels of government, including that of the Metropolitan Cities (MCs), established by the Delrio Law. MCs, which define development strategies in a medium-term period through the Metropolitan Strategic Plan (SP), represent a great opportunity to integrate PREM and public policies objectives. Within this framework, the aim of the present study is to evaluate meaning and roles recognized to the public assets in the SP drawn up by the Metropolitan City of Milan (MCM) - Lombardy Region - and in the ongoing SP of the Metropolitan City of Cagliari (MCC) - Sardinia Region. The qualitative and quantitative analysis of the two case studies allows authors to make considerations on the multiple roles that public real estate can play in the context of strategic planning to pursue sustainable development of territories.