Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1365814
8 NEWS TOWNSCAPES maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 28 APRIL 2021 JAMES DEBONO ANOTHER modernist villa could bite the dust if the Plan- ning Commission today approves plans to replace a terraced house built in Old Railway Avenue in the 1960s to make way for a five-storey apartment block. The case officer had recom- mended the approval of the ap- plication despite the Superin- tendence for Cultural Heritage's objection to the demolition of the villa's façade. The SCH noted that the prop- erty in question has a degree of architectural value, being a typi- cal example of a double-fronted townhouse from the period and having significant design fea- tures, including its apertures and railings. But while recognising that the façade is "an example of a tradi- tional Maltese streetscape from the modernist post war-era" the PA's Development Management Directorate still recommend- ed its demolition because "the existing streetscape is already committed by similar develop- ments", is located outside the Urban Conservation Area and is bereft of any degree of protec- tion. Changes were made to the orig- inal plans after in February the Planning Commission asked the developers to present a new de- sign for the façade which better reflects the architectural con- text. The decision was postponed again in March after the Com- mission asked for a redesign of the proposed balcony railing. But while improvements have been made to the original plans the development still would re- sult in a pencil development ru- ining the characteristics of the area. Din l-Art Helwa and the Ar- cheological Society are object- ing to the development and have called on the PA to protect Malta's modernist heritage. The NGOs warned that the proposed increase in height would intrude and overshadow the chapel of the Sisters of Charity and its gar- dens located in Balzan's urban conservation area. PA to decide fate of Balzan modernist villa today Hugo's burger kiosk: Playing cat and mouse with the PA Case officer had recommended approval of yet another five-storey block in an area characterised by elegant two-f loor buildings JAMES DEBONO THE Planning Authority has slapped Hu- go's Burger kiosk in Hal Ghaxaq with an enforcement order four days after an ar- ticle published on the Sunday edition of MaltaToday. The PA is presently evaluating an appli- cation by Hugo's group CEO Luke Chet- cuti to regularise the kiosk, which is identi- cal to another application already rejected by the Planning Commission back in Oc- tober 2020. Permission for the 42sq.m kiosk – set up in a corner between the Tal-Barrani road in Għaxaq and a narrow lane – was reject- ed due to safety concerns raised by Trans- port Malta, which believes that the kiosk, located 12m off the Tal-Barrani arterial road, could cause congestion in this road, resulting in lack of visibility for drivers. The PA had failed to issue an enforce- ment order accompanied with daily fines immediately after its rejection of Chetcu- ti's first regularisation attempt and only issued the enforcement order six months later. The enforcement order was issued on 22 April – four days after a report published in MaltaToday noted the absence of any enforcement order on the site despite two consecutive attempts to regularise the ille- gality. But the enforcement was immediately 'suspended' pending the outcome of the application to regularise the kiosk. A PA spokesperson confirmed that the appli- cation foresees a daily fine, which have to be paid even during the processing of the application. But the PA presently does not have any power to stop any applicant from resub- mitting applications, which have already been rejected in the past. Technically this allows the owners of illegalities to keep filing the same application over and over again to have their illegality regularised. "The Authority does not have the power to not accept any development application that gets re-submitted after it would have been refused by the Board/Commission," a PA spokesperson told MaltaToday. Thus by presenting a second application to regularise the illegality the owners are exploiting a loophole in planning rules which enables them to continue operating from the illegal site despite the breach in planning regulations. In fact the PA has no choice but to suspend enforcement actions while processing applications to regularise these illegalities. The fact that developers can continue presenting appli- cations to regularise the development even after a first and possibly second and third rejection means that developers who can afford to pay €50 in daily fines, can effec- tively delay any removal of the illegality. This has been the state of affairs since the inception of the Planning Authority with the situation being partly rectified in 2012 when the PA lost its power to regularise il- legalities in the ODZ while fines were also increased. But this decision was reversed in the new planning law approved in 2015, which restored the PA's power to regular- ise ODZ illegalities.