Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/434696
maltatoday, WEDNESDAY, 17 DECEMBER 2014 News 5 'Don't touch ODZ boundaries,' NGOs tell government JAMES DEBONO CONTINUES FROM PAGE 1 "Tweaking them again is yet another 'wrong' to all, save for those persons who will benefit from political prom- ises made in exchange for votes. These are two wrongs to our en- vironment that can never make a right... The vote bribery can exist forever, our open spaces will not." According to Astrid Vella the an- nouncement that extension of the development zones is being con- sidered is bad but not unexpected news "as when questioned on this subject, the answers given by the Prime Minister and previous Par- liamentary Secretary were never clear-cut". She also referred to the new regulations encouraging the con- struction of agro-tourism and other structures in the country- side which have already opened Out of Development Zones (ODZ) to further development. "The same goes for the project encroaching onto scheduled ODZ land at White Rocks/Pembroke as well as the three hotels on the southern coast". Vella referred to the claim by Falzon that "even from an aes- thetic point of view it would make sense to include lands which were left out unfairly." "This is nothing more than a re- peat of the pretexts given to jus- tif y the notorious Rationalistation Scheme of 2006". Vella contrasted the current gov- ernment's capitulation to specula- tors' demands for more land to the fact that 40,000 housing units are vacant and thousands more are crying out for restoration. "This shows the lack of courage and vi- sion of our political class" In an exclusive interview with MaltaToday published on Sunday, Michael Falzon, the parliamentary secretary responsible for planning and government lands, revealed that the new local plans will tweak development boundaries once again, adding lands which were unfairly left out in the controver- sial 2006 rationalisation. While excluding a major exten- sion of development boundaries Falzon confirmed that boundaries may be extended in some cases. "The general political direction is that the new local plans will not double or triple the size of the development zone… We are say- ing clearly that as far as possible the development zone will not in- crease." But when asked why the gov- ernment does not simply keep boundaries as these are today, Fal- zon justified tweaking the 2006 boundaries by accusing the former government of being "creative" in including certain lands and not others. "Even from an aesthetic point of view it would make sense to include lands which were left out unfairly," the minister said, while adding that "there is no intention to repeat the obscenities commit- ted in 2006." In 2006 the rationalisation ex- ercise in which an area the size of Siggiewi was added to develop- ment zones, was justified by the previous government as a way to fill "infill sites" (previously ODZ land surrounded on two sides by existing development) which had been left out from the temporary building plans in 1988. The issue was also discussed by the PN's parliamentary group. PN spokesperson Ryan Callus told MaltaToday that the position of the PN parliamentary group is that the government has not yet provided a justification as to whether there is a need for the de- velopment zones to be extended. "The Opposition has been stat- ing that the Strategic Plan for the Environment and Development (SPED) has to be finalized before any other local plan or policy is approved, as it provides a strategic planning framework for Malta for the years to come. "In any case, extending the de- velopment zones ought to be sub- jected to a Strategic Environment Impact Assessment (SEA), some- thing the goverment has not done yet". YOUR FIRST CLICK OF THE DAY www.maltatoday.com.mt Astrid Vella (left) and Simone Mizzi – against 'tweaking' development boundaries