PA regularises 13 homes that can’t be sold due to ODZ illegalities

The Planning Authority has regularised 13 properties on the strength of a legal notice issued in 2023 for minor illegalities on properties protruding beyond the limits of the development zones.

The PA could previously only regularise such minor illegalities when the properties were entirely located in the development zone.

All the 13 applications involved properties that were covered by a development permit, but included irregularities deviating from the original permit. Significantly 12 were solely located in Gozo, while one villa – whose shower-room fell into the ODZ – was in Madliena.

In total, the PA has so far received 63 regularisation applications for such properties, the authority told MaltaToday in an information request.

Eight of these properties are mostly located within the development zone, with only a small fraction of ODZ land, and another property fully located in a rural hamlet.  Most of the illegalities sanctioned involved breaches of sanitary regulations, involving the size of internal yards or the height of habitable floors.

But one case in Qala involved the regularisation of a swimming pool’s decking area, extending to 65 square metres, around the 12.4sq.m pool, entirely located in the ODZ. This was still deemed in line with the 2014 rural policy which allows decking areas as large as 75sq.m.

The regularised properties comprise two Xagħra apartments in the same block, and a petnhouse; a maisonette in Marsalforn; a garage in Zebbug; two apartments in the same block in Għajnsielem; a terraced house and an apartment in Qala; a farmhouse in Sannat and an apartment in Nadur. Another request was to regularise an entire penthouse that did not form part of the original permit for a block of apartments, a small fraction of which also fell in the ODZ.

In another case involving a farmhouse in Sannat, the PA regularised a pool and the use of aluminium instead of timber material in the apertures. But in this case the only ODZ structures to be regularised was a pump room.

Four of the applications were approved despite being recommended for refusal. These cases involved internal yards of flats located in apartment blocks where the case officer expressed concern that approval could prejudice other apartments in the same block.

Regularisation applications for ODZ illegalities are not published separately and are decided upon by the same board responsible for regularisations in the development zone chaired by Elisabeth Ellul. The rules effectively enable property owners to fully sanction illegalities that would otherwise prevent their properties from being legally  sold.

A freedom of information request by MaltaToday in July 2023 revealed that the Environment and Resources Authority had expressed concerns on the impact of the regularisation scheme, warning against the effoect of allowing urban development outside the building zones, something the ERA said “would be of environmental concern”.

It also presented recommendations to ensure regularisations are kept “to the barest minimum”, such as the scale and types of eligible irregularities being clearly specified and limited to minor interventions, and that no development should be regularise when it resulted in adverse impact on the environment.

The legal notice is presently being challenged by environmental NGOs in the law courts.