Benevento's city executive adopted a new Piano Urbanistico Comunale on 9 November 2026, reopening debate over how the Sannio capital should grow, regenerate and protect its agricultural land.
The municipality presents the adoption as the outcome of a multi-year planning and consultation process. The opposition association Benevento Domani disputes both the timing and the substance, summarising its position with the phrase: "Più che un piano, un testamento" — more a testament than a plan.
The adopted plan, the full adoption resolution and its technical annexes were not independently reviewed for this article. Criticisms described below are positions reported from Benevento Domani and have not been independently verified.
What was adopted
According to the administration, the Giunta adopted the new Piano Urbanistico Comunale on 9 November 2026 after a planning process begun in December 2022.
The administration says the plan includes a new neighbourhood atlas and a revised building regulation. Its published preliminary materials include strategic, cartographic and neighbourhood components, together with a preliminary VAS report for strategic environmental assessment.
The Comune's "Verso il nuovo PUC" page, which collects the preliminary strategic document, neighbourhood atlas, territorial maps and preliminary VAS report, was updated on 10 November 2026, the day after adoption.
The city's case: less farmland consumed, building inside the built city
The administration describes the plan around five main goals: limiting consumption of agricultural land, urban regeneration, landscape and environmental sustainability, territorial safety, and building within already developed areas.
In the city's formulation, reported as "costruire nel costruito," future development should be directed primarily inside the existing built environment rather than through expansion onto farmland.
That stated emphasis matters for readers because land consumption, regeneration of existing districts and safety of the territory are likely to be central points when observations are filed and discussed.
Why Benevento Domani objects
Benevento Domani criticizes the new PUC adopted by the Giunta and questions whether it can guide Benevento's future.
Its first objection concerns data. The association argues that the environmental report relies on older datasets, including air and energy-consumption data from 2018 and housing and business census data from 2011.
Its second objection concerns energy installations. Benevento Domani alleges a contradiction between the environmental report's treatment of photovoltaic installations and a 2024 Council resolution concerning priority areas for future projects.
Further claims circulated in the debate — including claims about the absence of existing photovoltaic installations, photovoltaic development over 100 hectares, expropriations and removal of olive groves and vineyards — remain allegations reported from Benevento Domani and were not independently verified against the adopted documents.
What happens next: observations, VAS review and Council vote
The next procedural phase includes 60 days for observations, followed by consideration of those submissions before final approval by the City Council.
Reporting on the dispute also refers to subsequent VAS review and a planned Council vote by 30 June 2027. The exact legal deadline and sequence for final approval should be checked against the adoption act and the applicable Campania planning and VAS procedures.
For residents following the process, the practical sequence is:
- Publication of the adopted plan and opening of the observation period.
- Sixty days for observations to be submitted.
- Consideration of the submissions, with VAS review.
- Final decision by the City Council.
Anyone intending to submit observations should rely on the formal adoption notice and filing instructions published by the Comune di Benevento, rather than on press summaries.
How to follow the documents
Readers do not need to wait for the Council vote to understand the structure of the work so far. The Comune has published preliminary materials that include the strategic document, territorial maps, neighbourhood atlas and preliminary environmental report.
One example is the environmental and settlement transformation map, identified by the Comune as a public PUC preliminary document and assigned to the VI Settore – Urbanistica.
When the full adopted version is published, the documents to compare are the adoption resolution itself, the complete plan, the environmental report and the technical annexes. Until those are reviewed together, detailed claims about specific sites and land-use changes should be treated with caution.
A longer planning history
Benevento's current planning framework has a documented history reaching back to the 2012 approved PUC, with later preliminary variant work.
The regional planning overview records the 2012 approved plan and notes that a preliminary variant was acknowledged by Giunta Resolution No. 148 of 27 July 2021.
The relationship between the plan adopted in November 2026 and the earlier 2012 PUC and 2021 preliminary variant work requires review of the underlying administrative acts. That question — continuity, variant or new plan — is likely to matter both legally and politically as the observation phase proceeds.
