Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1488480
3 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 18 DECEMBER 2022 NEWS Between 8 th and 18 th of December, 2022 we are transforming Salini Park into a magical, sustainable Christmas Village, where families can share the festive spirit, with lots of fun and scrumptious food, while discovering tips on how to make your Christmas celebrations sustainable and environment friendly.• Immerse yourself in the illuminated trail experience. Get in line to meet up with Santa Claus and enjoy the live entertainment and many other activities! FOR MORE INFO christmasinthepark.mt JAMES DEBONO A supermarket is being pro- posed on 5,800 sq.m of agri- cultural land along the Mrieħel bypass in the vicinity of the motorway's pedestrian bridge. Only about one-third of the area earmarked for this devel- opment lies within the build- ing zones, a stretch zoned for "mixed use" development like supermarkets and retail shops. The development is being proposed by Propay Ltd, a company owned by Jason Pace and Daniel Degorgio. Pace recently presented an- other application for an ODZ supermarket on a 5,500 sq.m plot of agricultural land along the Birkirkara bypass. Plans submitted to the Plan- ning Authority foresee the ex- cavation of a basement parking for 130 vehicles and a two-sto- rey supermarket on a 4,700 sq.m footprint. Plans also fore- see a 1,000 sq.m "garden" on part of the site. The Planning Authority's own policy regulating super- markets shows a preference for supermarkets located inside, or at the edge of town centres, to minimise car use, aimed at en- couraging multi-purpose trips and making supermarkets ac- cessible by public transport. But the local plan states that where this is not possible be- cause of the site-size require- ments of large supermarkets, "mixed use" areas can be con- sidered for this kind of devel- opment. The application effectively proposes extending the "mixed use" designation on part of the site to the entire site, some- thing which normally requires a change in the zoning of the area. Although the site is not iden- tified as an industrial zone or an area of containment in the local plan, the PA's map server refers to the site as being part of the Mrieħel Industrial Hub. Supermarket proposed on 5,800 sq.m of land, mostly ODZ but also on area zoned for supermarkets Mriehel bypass: supermarket proposed on agricultural land