Unfinished ‘rationalisation’: land the size of 33 football grounds awaits PA’s verdict

Seventeen years after development boundaries were controversially extended by the Gonzi administration, the Planning Authority is still assessing 16 applications by developers to set zoning rules.

The different sites together occupy a land area of approximately 264,000sq.m, which is equivalent to the size of 33  large football pitches. Alternatively, the land area is equivalent to half the size of Valletta from parliament all the way down to Archbishop Street.

The 16 pending cases analysed by MaltaToday do not include other land parcels introduced into development zones in 2006 and which zoning applications still must be presented.

The exercise also excludes parcels of land that have already been zoned, such as the Nigret area in Żurrieq, but where actual construction still must be approved.

After the extension of development boundaries carried out in 2006, developers still had to present a Planning Control Application to set planning parameters like building heights and building density for each site. It is only after these planning parameters are approved that developers can present planning applications to start construction.

Controversy over the 2006 rationalisation exercise came back to haunt the current administration after Zurrieq residents rallied against the approval by the Planning Authority of a zoning application condemning 12,000sq.m of agricultural land at Nigret.

Residents insisted that the approval was in breach of the Strategic Plan for the Environment and Development (SPED) which had been previously invoked by the Planning Authority to reject a zoning application in Mosta in 2017.

Swatar largest yet to be approved

The largest rationalisation site awaiting zoning rules involves a stretch of farmland along the Birkirkara bypass in Swatar. This site is facing the prospect of seven-storey development.

The land, equivalent in size to 15 football grounds, is set between St Martin’s College and Swatar’s residential zone, running along the bypass to create a continuous chain linking Birkirkara, Swatar and Tal-Qroqq.

The zoning application dates to 2018 when various landowners filed a planning control application in which the 115,000sq.m site is earmarked for over 11,000sq.m of commercial development, 31,500sq.m of mixed residential and commercial development, and 16,000sq.m of purely residential development. The rest of the site is earmarked for new roads and green open spaces (27,139 sq.m).

The landowners include S.C. & Co Limited, PD Finance, Paul Vella’s P&S Ltd, Anton Camilleri’s Camcas Ltd, entrepreneur James Barbara and several other individual owners including a small portion owned by former Malta Developers Association President Sandro Chetcuti. The Lands Authority also owns part of the site.

The application does not cover the entire rationalisation site, which includes a 60,000sq.m. area between the bypass and Triq Sir Anthony Mamo on which a zoning application still has to be presented.

The application is still being processed and is being contested by landowners who were not aware of the application when it was presented and whose land would end up being taken over by new roads or open spaces.   

Moreover, the local plan requires a development brief  for  “low traffic generating” land uses a “preference for uses ancillary and related to the existing Mater Dei Hospital and the University”.

In view of this in 2021 the application was changed into one which envisages a change of this restrictive policy.  The Msida local council had objected to the application.

Valley road

Another large site in Swatar on which a zoning application has been pending since 2017 involves an 18,000sq.m site between Valley Road, behind the Charles Grech outlet, and Triq Indri Grima above.

This land was included in the extended building zones on condition that only 50% of the whole site is developed. The latest plans foresee 9,651 sq.m of open space on 51% of the site, 1,582sq. of new roads and pavements and 12 separate building blocks on 7,624sq.m of land (46% of the site).

To address flooding concerns due to the take up of a valley side in a notoriously flood prone area, the developers have proposed reservoirs beneath each residential block with a storage capacity of 7,400 cubic meters to be used either as second-class water or to irrigate the green spaces.

Second attempt to develop 41,000sq.m Mosta site

Another major zoning application involving development on an area equivalent to five football grounds is being proposed in the vicinity of the Cumbo Tower between Mosta and Attard.

An application by the same owners on the same plot of land had been rejected by the Planning Authority in March 2017 weeks before the general election.

The application was refused by the PA’s executive council by five votes against two in a landmark decision which was welcomed by NGOs who interpreted it as a clear sign that the 2006 extension was not cast in stone.

According to the minutes of the meeting the application was rejected because as proposed the development did “not constitute an example of good urban design in terms of street layout, density and mix of residential and other development and the provision of green, public open space”.

Moreover, the development did not integrate well with the existing urban fabric and did not contribute to the objectives of the SPED which seeks the provision of social and community facilities in urban areas and the protection  of the character and amenity of urban areas.

The same landowners presented a new application in 2019 which allocates a green area of 905sq.m buffering the cemetery from the development. The application is still being assessed by the Planning Authority.

Fgura site

Another sizeable application presented by developer Anton Camilleri foresees five storey high residential development on a 23,000 square metres scrap yard on Triq id-Dejma, Triq il-Parroċċa and Triq il-Merħba in Fgura.

The Fgura local council had  objected to the application describing a proposed open space over  15% of the site as “misleading”, given that this would eventually mostly consist of access roads.

Other substantial developments are earmarked at Birzebbuga along Triq il-Fossili (13,200sq.m), and Siggiewi in fields along Triq Salvu Borg Olivier (8,628sq.m), in Iklin opposite a disused fireworks factory (8,500sq.m) and in Gharghur near the Mc Donalds outlet at Tal-Balal (6,650sq.m).