The future maintenance of agricultural terraces and the future of local territories are at risk under the draft Metropolitan Territorial Plan. That is the warning raised by Luca Mascolo, vice-mayor of Agerola and president of Ente idrico campano, during a Metropolitan Conference held at Santa Maria la Nova.

The remarks, reported by Il Mattino, ANSA and Metropolis, place Agerola at the center of a wider objection raised by mayors of the Monti Lattari and the piedmont plain over both the content and the method of metropolitan planning.

What happened

According to the three outlets, Mascolo criticized the draft Piano Territoriale Metropolitano during the Metropolitan Conference, calling for the territories to be heard and for a direct discussion with local communities before the plan moves forward.

The reports describe the intervention as part of a joint position taken by mayors from the Lattari area and the piedmont plain, who contest the current draft and ask for its critical points to be corrected.

No official position from the Città Metropolitana di Napoli in response to these objections was included in the sources reviewed for this article.

Why terraces are central

The main concern reported concerns the possible effect of unsuitable restrictions on the maintenance of agricultural terraces.

In Mascolo's account, as reported, rules that do not fit local farming conditions could discourage ongoing terrace maintenance. The fear expressed by the critics is that this could lead to land abandonment and worsen hydrogeological instability.

That link is presented in the sources as a risk highlighted by the plan's critics. No technical studies quantifying that impact were acquired in the reviewed research.

What the mayors are asking

The mayors cited by ANSA and Metropolis have asked to postpone adoption of the Plan until after final approval of the Regional Landscape Plan, the Piano Paesaggistico Regionale.

The request reported across the sources is to stop or delay the procedure, open a concrete dialogue with the municipalities, and address the identified problems before proceeding.

The objection is not only about timing. According to Il Mattino and Metropolis, local communities are also contesting the planning method, asking for greater attention to local knowledge and for recognition of the role and competences of the municipalities.

A broader balance: protection, farming, services and safety

According to Metropolis, the mayors' observations call for planning capable of balancing landscape protection, limits on land consumption, agriculture, tourism, mobility, essential services and territorial safety.

In other words, the debate is not framed by the critics as a choice between protection and development, but as a request for rules that keep farming viable, protect the landscape, contain soil consumption, and still allow for tourism, transport, services and safety measures.

That broader list is useful for readers because it shows why terraces have become a symbol of the dispute: they sit at the intersection of agricultural activity, landscape character and land stability.

What remains unclear

Several points could not be verified from the sources acquired:

  • The full text of the draft Metropolitan Territorial Plan and the specific rules under dispute were not acquired.
  • No official reply from the promoters of the Plan was included in the acquired sources.
  • The procedural status following the Metropolitan Conference was not verified in the acquired sources.

For now, what is documented is the political signal: Agerola and other small communities in the Lattari and piedmont area say the draft does not adequately reflect their territories, and they want the process paused and corrected through direct discussion before adoption.