Gzira’s 14 East high-rise ‘green wall’ promise is not enforceable, PA says

Gzira mayor Conrad Borg Manché is angry. Back in August 2017 at a Planning Authority board meeting considering allowing a further five storeys to Gzira’s 14 East tower, he proposed a specific condition obliging developers to turn the façade into a “green wall”.

Nobody objected to the proposal being an enforceable condition, leading the mayor to vote in favour of the project after convincing the board to impose a €25 per square metre planning gain instead of the paltry €4.33.

References to the green wall on the façade were mentioned in case officer reports for both the original project approved in 2015, and the additional storeys approved two years later and was also depicted in publicity videos

But now MaltaToday has been told by the PA that no such condition was ever imposed, and Borg Manché is livid. “I would never have voted in favour of the development had I known that both conditions were not being imposed,” Borg Manché said, even though he expects developers to carry out their plans for a green wall.

The green wall on the façade of the first 16 storeys of the development was not only emphasised in the sales pitch for apartments, but also in presentations made in a 2015 PA board meeting when the original 16-storey building was approved. “It was one of the few positives of the project and so far all we have are a couple of planters on the balconies… it is a joke… this is far from the images of solid patches of green we have seen in publicity videos.”

A PA spokesperson has insisted that it was only the Gzira local council which made reference to a green wall and recommended a specific condition to be imposed in this regard, but “this proposal was not taken up by the PA Board and so no such condition was included in the PA permit.”

The official minutes of the 2017 meeting have project architect Edwin Mintoff replying to Borg Manché’s proposal that “this design feature, incorporating soft landscaping troughs, was included by the applicant and was not imposed as a condition (in the permit issued in 2015).” Nobody from the PA board expressed disagreement with the Gzira mayor’s proposal.

References to the green wall on the façade were mentioned in case officer reports for both the original project approved in 2015, and the additional storeys approved two years later and was also depicted in publicity videos. On property websites, the 14 East high-rise was advertised as one “which includes a spectacular eco-green wall all across the building.”

Various newspaper reports referenced the green wall feature. Even the case officer report recommending the approval of the tower referred to “a proposed green wall” along the Sliema Road and Triq ir-Rebha facades which would have accentuated the “verticality of the proposed tall building” with its support system for green walls and planters”.

By the time of going to print no reply was given by the developers to confirm whether they have any intention of carrying out their plans for a green wall. 14 East Tower was promoted at the PA level by developer Jean Borg on behalf of ADMG Estates, a company owned by JPK Investments Limited, SN Holdings Limited and Sonnet Investments.