From wedding hall to luxury dwellings: Wied Babu bungalows set for approval

The Garden of Eden wedding hall within the protected Wied Babu valley is set to transform into 12 one-storey bungalows with pool.

The project is being recommended for approval by the Planning Authority’s development management directorate.

The PA’s rural policy permits the redevelopment of permitted buildings even outside the development zones (ODZ), if the replacement is deemed to be an environmental improvement over the existing situation.

The PA’s case officer said the proposed redevelopment was acceptable because of its minimal visual impact and because the Environment and Resources Authority had concluded it was unlikely to affect the integrity of the protected Natura 2000 site. Photomontages from sensitive views show little change over the existing situation.

The case officer described the new development “as one having a much higher quality rural design” than the existing building, and which better respects its surroundings.

The single-storey buildings were said to “blend better” with the surroundings, using earth-colour tones, curved pathways as those found in the countryside, and the addition of shrubs and plants typical of garigue landscape.

The outline development, if approved, will establish the planning parameters of the new development with regards to land use and height. Other issues, such as design, accessibility and landscaping will be dealt with in the eventual full development application.

Legality of previous building

In 2022 the PA had accepted a request by Garden of Eden owner Maurizio Baldacchino to postpone a decision on the restoration back to theoriginal garigue of an illegally built 4,900sq.m car park, opposite the wedding hall. This was considered along a parallel application to demolish the existing wedding hall and replace it with the bungalow complex. The application is still pending.

The legality of the existing building had also been certified by the Planning Authority’s former executive chairman Johann Buttigieg, in a letter sent to the owners back in May 2014. The letter stated that following verifications of court procedures and legal advice, “the authority cannot state that the premises in question are illegal or that illegalities exist on site.”

In fact, the court documents submitted to prove the legality of existing structures at the Garden of Eden, cast a light on a series of procedural errors on the part of the authorities, 30 years ago.

The court documents show how the authorities mysteriously withdrew an appeal against a court sentence that absolved the owners of conducting illegal work related to the operations of a nightclub – after filing it against the wrong person.

How Nigret site was originally developed

An original permit for a boundary wall in the Nigret site was issued to Joseph Baldacchino in October 1988. In January 1989 he obtained a trading licence for “an open-air disco” and to sell drinks, following a “no objection” by the Works Department.

In 1990, the licence was withdrawn in view of “unauthorized structures” consisting of “rooms roofed with a wooden ceiling” which had been erected in the area. But in October 1990, Baldachino was found not guilty of building without a permit, with the magistrate saying there was “reasonable doubt” that the structures were built before the revocation of the police trading licence.

The police and Attorney General appealed, arguing that the ‘no objection’ of the Works Department to the disco licence did not amount to a planning permit for the illegal structures.

But the appeal was erroneously filed against a certain Joseph Polidano, instead of Joseph Baldacchino. The error was rectified four days later. But Baldacchino contested this, arguing that this went beyond the four days the police had to file the appeal.

The Attorney General subsequently withdrew the appeal in November 1990.

Still, this was not the end of illegalities on the site because an enforcement order against a makeshift car park was issued in 1998. In 2018, plans were presented to develop bungalows on the site of the illegal parking. But the application was later withdrawn following strong opposition from Zurrieq residents.

Another application was then presented, limiting the development to the site of the existing wedding hall. The developers have presented another application to restore the illegal car park back to garigue and thus rectify the long-standing illegality.