Gaffarena’s ODZ warehouse plans rejected by Planning Authority

The Planning Authority rejected Marco Gaffarena’s application for the construction of 14 warehouses on ODZ land in Kirkop on Thursday morning.

The application was recommended for refusal by the case officer but in July the board had requested adjustment to plans to address the reasons for refusal.

The warehouses were proposed on a triangular 2,887sq.m site in an area known as Tal-Ponta in Kirkop, which lies outside the development zone. The site is covered with a 30 cm deep layer of soil over inert material dumped over the years to fill the disused quarry. The quarry has been backfilled for more than five decades.

Bird's eye view of the field in Kirkop (marked in blue) where Marco Gaffarena wanted to build warehouses

The warehouses would have overlooked the link road between Triq il-Madonna tad-Dawl and Triq Valletta.

Gaffarena has been attempting to convert a large ODZ field into warehouses since 2004, through various applications that the Planning Authority has consistently rejected.

However, following a decision by the Environment and Planning Review Tribunal (EPRT) in 2020 to overturn the latest refusal, new plans were presented by Gaffarena, reducing the number of warehouses from 33 to 14. Nonetheless, the case officer still recommended refusal, citing traffic impact and the cumulative impact on the rural area, apart from compromising the future planning of the site.

During the public hearing, architect Giorgio Schembri cited various commitments in the surrounding area while insisting that the application had been downscaled and was in line with the EPRT recommendations.

Kirkop mayor Terrence Agius insisted that the development should be refused as it is ODZ.

In a unanimous vote, the board refused the application.