Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1315450
maltatoday | SUNDAY • 6 DECEMBER 2020 10 NEWS MATTHEW AQUILINA On the 25 th anniversary of your tragic and mysterious disappearance together with the other passengers of the Piper Lance 9H-ABU We miss you so much dearest Matthew, love Mama, Papa, Daniel & Adrienne, Gillian, Emma, Sophie, Luisa, Anna, Nino, Mattia, Luca, Nanna, family and friends. Please remember Matthew in your thoughts and prayers. JAMES DEBONO GZIRA mayor Conrad Borg Manché is angry. Back in Au- gust 2017 at a Planning Author- ity board meeting considering allowing a further five storeys to Gzira's 14 East tower, he pro- posed a specific condition oblig- ing developers to turn the façade into a "green wall". Nobody objected to the pro- posal being an enforceable con- dition, leading the mayor to vote in favour of the project after con- vincing the board to impose a €25 per square metre planning gain instead of the paltry €4.33. But now MaltaToday has been told by the PA that no such con- dition was ever imposed, and Borg Manché is livid. "I would never have voted in favour of the development had I known that both conditions were not being imposed," Borg Manché said, even though he expects develop- ers to carry out their plans for a green wall. The green wall on the façade of the first 16 storeys of the de- velopment was not only empha- sised in the sales pitch for apart- ments, but also in presentations made in a 2015 PA board meet- ing when the original 16-storey building was approved. "It was one of the few positives of the project and so far all we have are a couple of planters on the bal- conies… it is a joke… this is far from the images of solid patches of green we have seen in publicity videos." A PA spokesperson has insisted that it was only the Gzira local council which made reference to a green wall and recommended a specific condition to be imposed in this regard, but "this propos- al was not taken up by the PA Board and so no such condition was included in the PA permit." The official minutes of the 2017 meeting have project architect Edwin Mintoff replying to Borg Manché's proposal that "this de- sign feature, incorporating soft landscaping troughs, was includ- ed by the applicant and was not imposed as a condition (in the permit issued in 2015)." Nobody from the PA board expressed dis- agreement with the Gzira may- or's proposal. References to the green wall on the façade were mentioned in case officer reports for both the original project approved in 2015, and the additional storeys approved two years later and was also depicted in publicity vide- os. On property websites, the 14 East high-rise was advertised as one "which includes a spectacu- lar eco-green wall all across the building." Various newspaper reports ref- erenced the green wall feature. Even the case officer report rec- ommending the approval of the tower referred to "a proposed green wall" along the Sliema Road and Triq ir-Rebha facades which would have accentuated the "verticality of the proposed tall building" with its support system for green walls and plant- ers". By the time of going to print no reply was given by the developers to confirm whether they have any intention of carrying out their plans for a green wall. 14 East Tower was promoted at the PA level by developer Jean Borg on behalf of ADMG Estates, a com- pany owned by JPK Investments Limited, SN Holdings Limited and Sonnet Investments. Gzira high-rise 'green wall' promise not enforceable – PA Mayor livid after PA tells MaltaToday green wall on high- rise façade was never enforceable condition in the permit issued to developers No sign of a green wall: the 17 East high-rise was supposed to have a unique 'green wall' feature, but the Planning Authority is disputing the enforceability of this condition "I would never have voted in favour of the development had I known that both conditions were not being imposed"