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maltatoday, SUNDAY, 23 AUGUST 2015 News 13 American University still located on proposed national park JAMES DEBONO THE diminished 18,000 square metres of land outside development zones that is now being proposed for the private university campus at Marsaskala's Zonqor Point, is still taking up some of the area designated as a national nature park, approved in the 2006 local plan for the south of Malta. A local plan policy already protects this zone from devel- opment. This means that to approve the project the government will still have to amend the South Malta Local Plan to re- duce the proposed national park by the 18,000 square me- tres being used for the cam- pus. The map published in the presentation on the campus issued by the government on Thursday shows the bounda- ries of the national park in 2006, but omits the site now identified for the American University of Malta. The government has also appointed a project steer- ing committee to formulate a management plan for the park. According to the original plans for the 90,000 square metres of university campus at Zonqor, a much larger part of the proposed park was set to be lost to development. The local plan approved in 2006 designates the area known as L-Ghassa tal-Munx- ar and the coastal stretch be- tween Zonqor point and Blata l-Bajda (Xghajra), as "national parks primarily for informal recreation (e.g. walking, cy- cling) and the appreciation of the ecological, geological, ar- chaeological as well as cultur- al-historical features of these areas. "Within these parks priority will be given to the conserva- tion, protection and improve- ment of the natural and cultur- al-historical heritage. Positive provision will also be made for recreational uses consistent with this objective," the local plan says. Only limited commercial development related to the needs of visitors can be ap- proved in the approved na- tional park and this has to be identified by the Management Plan to be drawn up for each of the areas. Despite designating the area as a national park as far back as 2006, the PN government did not proceed to approve man- agement plans for the differ- ent areas of the park. In 2009 part of the site was even pro- posed for re-located caravans but this idea was scrapped af- ter NGOs objected. principles for striving to save the environment, heritage and quality of life of the country we love." While Vella welcomed the in- vestment in Cottonera, she ques- tioned whether the selection of Dock 1 was the best option for Cottonera residents or the best option for Sadeen and claimed that other Cottonera sites avail- able for the university were dis- missed for "puerile reasons". "A heritage site such as Dock One has been crying out for invest- ment to be converted into a top quality tourism project for years," she said, questioning whether any social impact and traffic studies have been carried out to estab- lish which type of project would be best for Cottonera's residents, economy and historic environ- ment. The University Students' Council (KSU) also criticised the government's insistence on the development of ODZ land at Zon- qor Point. "Safeguarding virgin, pristine land should be placed at the top of any government's agenda, and this explains the continued plea for the government to find other possible locations for that part of the campus which is planned to be built at Zonqor," KSU said in a statement. It truly is an unenviable posi- tion for them: persisting in their opposition risks ending in defeat for the green lobby; accepting Muscat's compromise would be a poisoned chalice, one that could legitimise future projects. Zonqor may not be winnable, but accept- ing it will prejudice future opposi- tion to other projects. Developers may also have learned their lesson: first by pro- posing an oversized project and generate controversy about it, and then drastically scale it down to present the final product as a compromise – as they would have originally wished. Muscat's 'compromise' solution By now roping in rebel MP Mar- lene Farrugia – one of the project's foremost critics, Muscat has gone some way in projecting the still- considerable loss of 18,000 square metres of ODZ land as a reason- able compromise, simply because this represents only 20% of the project's footprint. In fact it's the compromise be- tween a government that was under pressure by environmen- talists, and the developers. Not a compromise between the gov- ernment and its environmental- ist critics. Persist in opposing the project, and critics will be lam- basted as 'absolutists' now pitted against the interests of the de- prived communities in Cot- tonera, now brought on as the project's staunchest backers. But the scale-down at Zonqor also strength- ens the resolve of civil society to oppose ODZ development wherever and whenever proposed. Muscat may well have le- gitimised a source of non- partisan, extra-parliamenta- ry opposition that will outlive the Zonqor issue. Not to mention the fatc that the bars have been raised for future projects. ODZ developments and im- minent decisions on the White Rocks development, the Gozo airstrip, Comino, the Gozo cruise liner terminal, and land reclama- tion come to mind. Conspiracy-theorists might even surmise whether Muscat started with an inflated 90,000 square me- tres figure to simply have leeway for compromise. The new AUM project will use 41,800 square metres of land, 31,000 at Zonqor, but this is partly accounted for by the increase in heights, which will increase the impact of the project on Marsaskala views while reduc- ing the ODZ footprint. And the choice to split the cam- pus between Zonqor and Borm- la's disused Dock No. 1 (originally designated to house swanky wa- terfront apartments by the Rome- gas consortium) exposed the PR gimmick that was the online consultation that yielded 626 sub- missions for an alternative to the Zonqor university. Absolutely none of these sites survived government's short- listing. Indeed no terms of refer- ence or guidelines were issued when consultation was launched. The U-turn was a messy process that was bolstered by economic and social impact assessments to correct the lack of research on the decision, rather than a planned and graceful retreat. Sadeen's sea-view dormitory at Zonqor however confirms Mus- cat's belief that cheap land is an asset designed to lure in FDI: a warning sign for the environment if there ever was one. Muscat cannot resist the temptation of a development that can be spun as a 'social' project. A private univer- sity for the children of the global rich has its economic benefits in attracting high-net-worth indi- viduals to Malta, another part of Labour's trickle-down strategy. Muscat may ultimately bank on the perception that he has achieved a 'balance' between de- velopment and the environment. He may well have used this expe- rience to test the waters for future developments. developers sea-view Above: the natural park as designated by the local plan in 2006, and in this picture, the newly-designated natural park at Zonqor Point Labour MP Marlene Farrugia was firmly against AUM as proposed; she has accepted Muscat's compromise The art of indecent proposals and compromise solutions? Muscat now knows the green lobby means business