Burmarrad: illegal storage area paves way for basement parking near San Pawl Milqi

Road-builders Bonnici Bros want to build a basement parking area for their trucks in what was until recently an illegally-developed storage area inside the San Pawl Milqi heritage site’s buffer zone.

The Planning Authority had approved their request to sanction the illegal storage area, in close vicinity to the heritage site, in 2017 without consulting the Superintendence for Cultural Heritage, a memo by the heritage watchdog reveals.

The storage area is located just outside the buffer zone for San Pawl Milqi, site that includes the ruins of a Roman villa, catacombs and a chapel located within a 200m radius.

Four years later, Bonnici Bros now want to excavate the site, to construct a basement parking for their trucks.

The same construction company, whose road-building contracts include an €805,000 direct order for the Triq l-Għeriexem widening in Rabat, also wants to develop a supermarket on a nearby Burmarrad site, outside the development zones. It also has a pending zoning application for apartments and retail shops on an adjacent site along Triq is-Sardin, within the development zone.

Infrastructure Malta has pressed ahead with plans to build a new roundabout on the Burmarrad road that would calm down traffic on the road leading to the proposed developments.

In a memo on their latest application, the Superintendence for Cultural Heritage denounced the way it was ignored when the illegalities were sanctioned on the 3,500sq.m site four years ago.

Their application to sanction the illegal storage facilities, outside development zones,

was originally turned down in 2004 due to the negative impact on the scenic value of the area. Subsequently, an enforcement order was issued against the illegal change of use of land from agricultural to commercial, and construction of warehouses without permit.

But an application to sanction the works presented in 2008, was approved nine years later despite a case officer report calling for refusal.

The justification for overturning the advice of the case officer was a permit issued in 1988, to enclose the perimeter of the site with an eight-course high masonry wall rather than a low rubble wall, seen as an indication that the site’s use of a storage area had been considered in the decision of that permit.

All board members, including government representative Joseph Sammut and Opposition representative Ryan Callus and former PN mayor Graziella Galea had voted in favour. Only ERA chairman Victor Axiak and NGO representative Annick Bonello had voted against.

During the meeting, the developer had asked whether part of the €99,258 planning gain being proposed “could be compensated for by carrying out works in the locality”. The applicant had accepted to open the road in front of the property for public access.

The Superintendence for Cultural Heritaage described the site of the development as a very sensitive location, expressing concern at the intensive development “in the vicinity of a national monument” that is scheduled for its significant archaeological and cultural heritage valu, and on which this office had not been consulted.

The Superintendence said that any works at this location are bound to have a visual impact on this scheduled monument.

But since a permit was already issued to sanction illegalities on the site in 2017, the SCH acknowledged that the site is now committed and therefore it cannot object to alterations to approved development.

Still, the SCH insists that works should not intensify the already approved development and called for photomontages of the development as seen from San Pawl Milqi.

Moviment Graffitti is objecting to the application, warning that this is linked to an application by Bonnici Bros to construct its supermarket in the same area, and to IM’s plan for a roundabout to easily divert oncoming traffic to the supermarket. “All of these applications are linked to the same applicant, and it is clear that the applicant is seeking to transform the area through piecemeal applications which will have devastating impacts on the area, destroying ODZ land, as well as affecting the livelihood of farmers whose land could be lost if this application goes through,” Graffitti said.

Timeline

• 1988 Bonnici Bros awarded permit to erect wall around site which was illegally used as a storage area
• 2004 PA twice refuses to regularise illegal storage area
• 2008 Decision to refuse sanctioning upheld by Appeals Tribunal
• 2008 New application presented to sanction illegal storage area
• 2017 PA board sanctions illegal development on the same site despite case officer’s objection
• 2018 Bonnici Bros apply to develop a supermarket on an adjacent ODZ plot. Application still pending
• 2018 Bonnici Brothers apply for 104 apartments, 21 shops and a plaza on an adjacent site within the development zone. A zoning application is pending
• 2020 Infrastructure Malta presents plans to construct new roundabout at the corner between Triq is-Sardin and Triq Burmarrad
• 2021 Bonnici Bros apply to excavate site for a basement parking