Checkmate at Zonqor

A scale-back by Joseph Muscat on his controversial private university following a public consultation and new site selection exercise by MEPA, has drawn new battle-lines between the green lobby and the developer-friendly Labour government.

May’s announcement for an ‘American University of Malta’ by a construction firm from Jordan sent shivers down the back of the entire environmental lobby, sending 3,000 out in protest on the streets of Valletta.

Muscat, who says AUM will bring in a major foreign investment injection, has since split the 90,000 square-metre campus that was to gobble up a sizeable part of a national natural park at Zonqor Point, across 18,000 square metres and to take up the forgotten Dock No. 1 waterfront in Bormla.

Fair compromise? The starting point itself may have been an indecent proposal to many, but the diminished plans for the ambitious private university, to be promoted by Sadeen and endorsed by Chicago’s DePaul University, was itself the result of the consistent pressure applied by the organisation founded to protect countryside areas from further construction: the Front Harsien ODZ. Many of its members are veterans of the environmental front, having battled golf courses, land reclamation, the reckless extension of building zones in 2006, fantastical ODZ developments in Gozo – the list is endless.

And yet, they now face the brave new world of Labour under Joseph Muscat, self-confessed unbeliever of ‘gold-plated’ environmentalism. When it comes to welcoming foreign investors, Muscat likes to flip the house and cash in if the price is good enough. Critics may find his development model unpalatable, but his war chest, bolstered by the Individual Investor Programme of passport sales to the global rich, will keep him in good stead with the electorate.

But his partial U-turn on Zonqor’s university has also raised the bar on any future developments, having confirmed the strength of civil society to thwart controversial developments but also sending the message that cheap land outsidedevelopment-zones (ODZ) can be used to subsidise private developments. Flip the house, and cash in.

A galvanised civil society

If the plans presented on Thursday are final, the Front Harsien ODZ and the entire environmental lobby would have failed in their bid to stop all ODZ development at Zonqor point.

A considerable land area of ODZ land – the equivalent of nearly three football grounds – will still be sacrificed. But the decision to scale down the ODZ intake from 90,000 square metres to 18,000 square metres suggests that the 3,000 strong protest has sent a strong message which the government could not ignore. In itself this vindicates the effectiveness of public protests in bringing about changes in policy and government decisions.

This on its own suggests a contradiction between the government’s readiness to twist the rules to accommodate developments, and its unease at being confronted by a strong reaction by civil society. Fearful of a similar reaction to that t Zonqor, the government may well proceed with greater caution in pushing developments opposed by civil society organisations.

Clearly Muscat is in greater difficulty when confronting NGOs and civil society, than when facing the more predictable Nationalist opposition. But the downscaling of the project also suggests that the government had underestimated opposition to the Zonqor proposal, announced just days after the slim ‘yes’ victory in the hunting referendum.

Muscat’s latest U-turn hides a concession that he realises that environmentalists are a force to be reckoned with, especially when Front Harsien ODZ emerged as an organisation solely focused on public mobilisation.

While radical changes to planning laws made by the present government do not bode well for the environment this episode shows that the strength of civil society resistance can limit the power of governments to ride roughshod over objections.

The MEPA demerger and the new Strategic Plan for Environment and Development practically weaken environmental protection and usher in a long list of permissible development, but the Zonqor episode shows that the government is uneasy when faced by civil society protests.

Into the planning machine

One dilemma for environmental organizations is how to oppose the remaining ODZ part of the project, without embarking on a lost cause and being labelled ‘extremists’… or as Muscat prefers, ‘absolutists’.

A final MEPA permit has not been issued for the project, and the authority can still technically refuse the project if pressure continues to mount. But the change in planning policies, including a SPED policy paving the way for ODZ developments, makes approval even more likely.

But the ODZ development in Zonqor – one of the largest ODZ developments in recent history – is also a litmus test for the newly created Environment Authority, which has now been granted the power to appeal against MEPA decisions.

Will the new Environment Authority give its blessing to the loss of garigue? The other danger for environmentalists is that if approved, the project sets a precedent for other ‘compromise’ (or phantom compromise) solutions that will still involve the take-up of more ODZ land.

It truly is an unenviable position 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 accepting it will prejudice future opposition to other projects.

Developers may also have learned their lesson: first by proposing 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 Marlene Farrugia – one of the project’s foremost critics, Muscat has gone some way in projecting the stillconsiderable loss of 18,000 square metres of ODZ land as a reasonable compromise, simply because this represents only 20% of the project’s footprint.

In fact it’s the compromise between a government that was under pressure by environmentalists, and the developers. Not a compromise between the government and its environmentalist critics.

Persist in opposing the project, and critics will be lambasted as ‘absolutists’ now pitted against the interests of the deprived communities in Cottonera, now brought on as the project’s staunchest backers.

But the scale-down at Zonqor also strengthens the resolve of civil society to oppose ODZ development wherever and whenever proposed. Muscat may well have legitimised a source of nonpartisan, extra-parliamentary opposition that will outlive the Zonqor issue. Not to mention the fatc that the bars have been raised for future projects.

ODZ developments and imminent decisions on the White Rocks development, the Gozo airstrip, Comino, the Gozo cruise liner terminal, and land reclamation come to mind. Conspiracy-theorists might even surmise whether Muscat started with an inflated 90,000 square metres 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 reducing the ODZ footprint.

And the choice to split the campus between Zonqor and Bormla’s disused Dock No. 1 (originally designated to house swanky waterfront apartments by the Romegas consortium) exposed the PR gimmick that was the online consultation that yielded 626 submissions for an alternative to the Zonqor university.

Absolutely none of these sites survived government’s shortlisting. Indeed no terms of reference 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 Muscat’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 university for the children of the global rich has its economic benefits in attracting high-net-worth individuals to Malta, another part of Labour’s trickle-down strategy. Muscat may ultimately bank on the perception that he has achieved a ‘balance’ between development and the environment. He may well have used this experience to test the waters for future developments.