Gozitan construction magnate Joseph Portelli’s daughter gets permit for store

The Planning Authority has approved an application by Chloe Portelli, the daughter of Gozo’s construction magnate Joseph Portelli, to build a 20sq.m ‘agricultural store’ in the vicinity of the Kennuna tower in Nadur which will enjoy the idyllic views of Malta and Comino.

The PA also regularised the construction of a long stretch of highly visible rubble walls on the same site after imposing a €1,200 fine.

The case officer had recommended the approval of the two separate but related development applications filed last year, one of which was to sanction the construction of illegal rubble walls, and another to build the store. 

The case officer insisted that even though the rubble walls around and across the area were built without a permit, they “fit in with the Planning Authority’s rural policy guidelines.”

The Environment and Resources Authority had objected to both the sanctioning of the illegally-constructed rubble walls and the new store.

Noting that the wider context is still relatively free from development, the ERA warned that the introduction of a new structure and formalization of the site which is also designated within an Area of High Landscape Sensitivity is of “concern from an environmental point of view”.

Portelli’s application for an “agricultural store” in the area, prompted concern that the illegal works, denounced by residents for weeks before the PA finally intervened to stop the works after their completion, were aimed at laying the ground for even more development.

Chloe Portelli – a registered farmer – is actually the hospitality manager for the Portelli Group’s hotel chain and is directly responsible for the operations and project management of these properties. 

The site of the rubble walls is a continuous stretch of open terraced land known as ‘il-Gebel l-Ahmar’ on the southern countryside of Nadur, facing the village of Ghajnsielem, and is highly visible from various surrounding areas. The Gozo and Comino Local plan shows the area designated as an Area of High Landscape Sensitivity. 

The site is currently subject to an active enforcement notice against the construction of rubble walls without permit. “In the light of environmentally-inconsiderate works already observed so far, there are significant concerns relating to defacement of the affected rural landscape,” the ERA warned. 

Both the construction of the illegal walls and the proposed development of an agricultural store raised “significant environmental concerns”, the ERA said, as these would result in “visual intrusion” and a “significant cumulative impact” on the surrounding rural environment. 

The ERA said that if approved the development will end up “breaking a presently undisturbed skyline” and create a precedent for similar changes in the surrounding lands. It insisted that any interventions should have be limited to “surgical repairs to limited stretches of rubble wall that are in bad shape”. The Superintendence for Cultural Heritage had also objected to the formalisation of the site.

The Superintendence expressed concern that the unbroken band of high rubble walls is resulting in a visual intrusion within a significant cultural and rural landscape.