Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1369939
14 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 9 MAY 2021 NEWS Malta's planning mayhem Yet what can be done? After George Vella's social media foray on the uglification of Żejtun, JAMES DEBONO catches up with different stakeholders to ask them what can be done to save the day amid Malta's planning mayhem FACED with an apartment block proposed in his own neighbourhood, President George Vella called for a review of planning policies. His appeal came in the wake of increased frustration at an un- stoppable building frenzy which has seen the PA approving more than 42,000 new dwellings since 2017 and unsightly develop- ments springing up in every nook and cranny, breaking up the traditional skylines of towns and villages which had emerged intact during previous building booms. The current planning crisis is the result of an accumulation of policies approved since 2005, with goalposts always widened to allow more goals to be scored by developers, and where the referee blames the badly written rules to justify how one-sided the game is. "The rot has now spread so far, so wide and so deep that the uglification and rampant ur- banization has spread to every corner of the archipelago. No- where is safe from the relent- less onslaught of over-develop- ment," says environmentalist and lawyer Claire Bonello, the brains behind legal challenges to a number of developments approved in the past years. She blames this on the "constant deliberate dilution of planning laws", resulting in a situation where "basically anything may be allowed – or sanctioned". Key stakeholders like the Kamra tal-Periti share this an- ger and frustration. Chamber President Andre Pizzuto is not impressed by the President's call for a review of current pol- icies. "What the country needs to realise is that we never had a building regulation system, and our planning system has failed. Tweaking or reviewing them will not suffice". And while the President sug- gested that the rules and regu- lations may appear "good and academically justified on the statute books", they are not in the real world. "No one qual- ified in related fields could ev- er support such a statement, not least the Kamra tal-Periti," Pizzuto said, adding that "the result of the incompetent ad- ministration of planning and building regulation over the past 40 years speaks for itself." While noting that the Cham- ber has been calling for a re- form of the building and con- struction industry since at least 2007, "subsequent administra- tions have largely ignored these calls". In the meantime, "the built environment has been sav- aged during this period with a dramatic deterioration of our quality of life". In this context "anyone who suggests quick-fix solutions to resolve the crisis in the industry, particularly in relation to planning and build- ing regulation, has not yet fully grasped the gravity of the situ- ation." Raise the bar high for developers The consensus that something is rotten in the state of Den- mark is so universal that even the Malta Developers Associa- tion is concerned. Its newly ap- pointed director-general Debo- rah Schembri, herself a former parliamentary secretary respon- sible for planning, agrees with the President's appeal. "I believe that the President is here representing the plea of the common citizen. He very aptly pin-points to the source of the problem since laws, regula- tions and policies are what need changing given that what is be- ing decried is perfectly legally done, blessed by development permits meted out on the basis of current legislation, regula- tions and policies." Schembri now calls for a me- ticulous rethink of the local plans approved in 2006, "along- side forward planning which should map the way not just to sustainable development but al- so to a desirable aesthetic when it comes to our streetscapes and the urban environment". But would developers ev- er agree to changes limiting their potential to build more? Schembri points out that the serious developer cannot but be in favour of such a reform sim- ply because having a finished development in the midst of a well-thought-out urban envi- ronment would yield a much better return on investment. "It is a real pity that the MDA's ef- forts to raise the bar are usually overshadowed by the few bad apples that make the headlines." Institutional paralysis Yet despite the gravity of the situation in a country where the PA has approved 42,204 brand new dwellings between 2017 and the end of 2020, calls for reform are still met with an entrenched, institutional paral- ysis, based on the premise that development rights accumulat- ed in the past cannot be legally reversed. The perverse logic results in an absurd situation where goal- posts can only be changed to fa- vour the construction industry and never to restrain its 'rights'. Since his appointment as plan- ning minister Aaron Farrugia has taken a few timid, albeit significant steps like introduc- ing stricter criteria for develop- ments near scheduled buildings and changing the composition of some PA boards. But when faced with calls for a radical overhaul he warns that reversing 'building rights' emanating from these poli- cy changes will result in hefty compensation claims. "Shall we compensate these families with billions of euros to rescind the rights they acquired? Shall we take back those rights? This is why we need to sit down and have a mature discussion that goes beyond complaints of ug- lification and urban sprawl," he said on Xtra last week, Previously Farrugia had sug- gested a discussion on "com- prehensive development" which would mean that people will only be able to add more storeys to their buildings if the entire street agrees to do so too. But even this proposal came with an ominous warning through which he shot down his own proposal… adding that this "would mean that a father who wants to build his son an apart- ment so that he doesn't have to take out a home loan when he grows up will have to wait years and years for everyone in his street to reach an agreement." Is this not the perfect recipe for a stalemate? A lame excuse to keep developers' interests intact Andre Callus from Moviment Graffitti describes this kind of response to strong public pres- sure for a change in the ruin- ous planning sector, as "a lame excuse behind which ministers hide in order to keep develop- ers' interests intact." While recognising that the Lo- cal Plans enacted in 2006 have had a disastrous effect on our planning and environment, and that legally they are not easy to change, the planning issues