Summary
- On 12 October, Attilio Fontana said Lombardy was preparing amendments to its regional data centre law.
- The existing June law already prioritises brownfield and regeneration locations.
- No amended legislation has yet been enacted through this announcement.
Lombardy‘s regional president, Attilio Fontana, has confirmed that his administration intends to revise its data centre legislation, with the aim of directing development more firmly towards sites already affected by industrial or other human activity. Fontana made the comments on 12 October, according to ANSA. They signal intended legislative changes rather than an enacted amendment or an immediate ban.
The northern Italian region adopted regional law 11/2026 in June to govern data centre location and authorisation. Its existing provisions already identify former industrial land, disused premises and areas requiring regeneration among preferred development locations. The latest political commitment appears to seek a firmer application of that principle, rather than introducing brownfield development as an entirely new concept.
Any alteration needs to pass through the relevant regional procedures before it changes an applicant’s legal obligations. Existing permissions and projects currently under review may also require transitional treatment. The governor’s remarks do not provide a complete draft text, so it would be premature to describe a blanket prohibition on every greenfield proposal.
Land selection also determines grid requirements
Reusing an industrial site can reduce pressure to develop undeveloped land, but it does not automatically make the property suitable for high-density computing. Ground contamination, demolition, structural condition, transport and drainage may all change the cost and programme. Brownfield status is also no substitute for verifying electricity capacity and grid connection requirements.
The existing regional law addresses energy and environmental priorities alongside land use. It refers to low-carbon energy, opportunities for recovering data centre waste heat and compatibility with electrical infrastructure. A site close to an established substation may still need major reinforcement, while a seemingly attractive former factory might lack the continuous power arrangement required by an operational campus.
Regional implementation measures have already specified parts of the approval process, including the role of inter-municipal discussion and compensatory measures for territorial or environmental effects. Revisions to the original law could interact with those instruments, but no complete schedule for updating them has been established in the reported comments.
Milan and its surrounding municipalities form one of Italy’s central data centre markets, making decisions over the location of future sites commercially significant. Municipalities must weigh new development against land consumption, electricity infrastructure and community impacts. Those questions are distinct from whether a developer has secured an investment partner or a prospective computing customer.
There is a practical tension between restricting greenfield construction and ensuring projects can secure appropriate electricity. A former industrial property may have existing electrical infrastructure, but its historical load can be very different from the continuous demand of a data centre. Conversely, a suitable grid location might lack a designated redevelopment site. The eventual amendments will need to resolve how land-use preferences interact with network availability, local planning discretion and environmental remediation, rather than assuming any one brownfield location is automatically ready to accommodate computing infrastructure.
Fontana’s stated direction gives applicants an indication of the region’s political priorities while introducing some uncertainty over the detailed criteria that will apply to later projects. Until an amendment is adopted, the existing June framework and subsequent implementing measures remain the authoritative rules for planning and permitting decisions.
