Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1501675
13 NEWS ANALYSIS maltatoday | SUNDAY • 18 JUNE 2023 SEVENTEEN years after development boundaries were controversially extended by the Gonzi administration, the Planning Authority is still assessing 16 applications by developers to set zoning rules. The different sites together occupy a land area of approximately 264,000sq.m, which is equivalent to the size of 33 large foot- ball pitches. Alternatively, the land area is equivalent to half the size of Valletta from parliament all the way down to Archbish- op Street. The 16 pending cases analysed by Malt- aToday do not include other land parcels introduced into development zones in 2006 and which zoning applications still must be presented. The exercise also excludes parcels of land that have already been zoned, such as the Nigret area in Żurrieq, but where actual construction still must be approved. After the extension of development boundaries carried out in 2006, develop- ers still had to present a Planning Control Application to set planning parameters like building heights and building density for each site. It is only after these planning parameters are approved that developers can present planning applications to start construction. Controversy over the 2006 rationalisation exercise came back to haunt the current ad- ministration after Zurrieq residents rallied against the approval by the Planning Au- thority of a zoning application condemning 12,000sq.m of agricultural land at Nigret. Residents insisted that the approval was in breach of the Strategic Plan for the Envi- ronment and Development (SPED) which had been previously invoked by the Plan- ning Authority to reject a zoning applica- tion in Mosta in 2017. Swatar largest yet to be approved The largest rationalisation site awaiting zoning rules involves a stretch of farmland along the Birkirkara bypass in Swatar. This site is facing the prospect of seven-storey development. The land, equivalent in size to 15 foot- ball grounds, is set between St Martin's College and Swatar's residential zone, run- ning along the bypass to create a contin- uous chain linking Birkirkara, Swatar and Tal-Qroqq. The zoning application dates to 2018 when various landowners filed a plan- ning control application in which the 115,000sq.m site is earmarked for over 11,000sq.m of commercial development, 31,500sq.m of mixed residential and com- mercial development, and 16,000sq.m of purely residential development. The rest of the site is earmarked for new roads and green open spaces (27,139 sq.m). The landowners include S.C. & Co Limit- ed, PD Finance, Paul Vella's P&S Ltd, An- ton Camilleri's Camcas Ltd, entrepreneur James Barbara and several other individual owners including a small portion owned by former Malta Developers Association President Sandro Chetcuti. The Lands Au- thority also owns part of the site. The application does not cover the en- tire rationalisation site, which includes a 60,000sq.m. area between the bypass and Triq Sir Anthony Mamo on which a zon- ing application still has to be presented. The application is still being processed and is being contested by landowners who were not aware of the application when it was presented and whose land would end up being taken over by new roads or open spaces. Moreover, the local plan requires a devel- opment brief for "low traffic generating" land uses a "preference for uses ancillary and related to the existing Mater Dei Hos- pital and the University". In view of this in 2021 the application was changed into one which envisages a change of this restrictive policy. The Msida local council had objected to the application. Valley road Another large site in Swatar on which a zoning application has been pending since 2017 involves an 18,000sq.m site between Valley Road, behind the Charles Grech outlet, and Triq Indri Grima above. This land was included in the extended building zones on condition that only 50% of the whole site is developed. The latest plans foresee 9,651 sq.m of open space on 51% of the site, 1,582sq. of new roads and pavements and 12 separate building blocks on 7,624sq.m of land (46% of the site). To address flooding concerns due to the take up of a valley side in a notoriously flood prone area, the developers have pro- posed reservoirs beneath each residential block with a storage capacity of 7,400 cubic meters to be used either as second-class water or to irrigate the green spaces. CONTINUED ON PAGE 14 Unfinished 'rationalisation' Land the size of 33 football grounds awaits PA's verdict The Planning Authority still has to approve zoning applications on 16 different land parcels added to development boundaries in 2006 over a total area of 264,000sq.m. JAMES DEBONO reports Swatar (Photo: James Bianchi/Mediatoday)