Mosta: Planning Authority now zoning 36,000 sq.m area for development

Over 36,000sq.m of agricultural land in Mosta are set to be lost to residential development, after these were included in the 2006 extension of the building zone.

The Ta’ Mellu land is being recommended by the Planning Authority’s planning directorate as a zone for 17.5m-high development, despite objections by the Environment and Resources Authority against a new road that will protrude outside the 2006 boundaries.

The ERA said the new road was an “unacceptable” loss of further undeveloped land beyond what was included in 2006.

ERA also insisted that interventions should be confined within the development zone.

But the PA’s planning directorate has defended the proposed road, arguing that this was being done “to achieve street continuation of Triq Gio Maria Camilleri”.

A condition is being recommended so that the boundary wall along the road at the edge of scheme is constructed in the traditional random rubble.

Original plans to create a pedestrian zone around San Silvestru, which presently serves as a roundabout, have been dropped after Transport Malta objected on safety grounds.

The development will include two public open spaces, which together amount to 1,839sq.m; while 22,000sq.m will be developed and the rest of the site will be taken up by roads and front gardens.

The Mosta local council had called for lower building heights at the same level of the mainly two and three-storey buildings in the area.
It had also called for the pedestrianisation of the area around the chapel and for a green buffer between existing developments and the development within the rationalisation site.

The owners of the site include hotelier and developer Anglu Xuereb, and landowner Salvino Testaferrata Moroni Viani.

A final decision by the PA’s executive council, its highest governing body, is expected in the next few weeks.

The PA is also considering the zoning of another 40,000sq.m tract at Mosta’s tad-Dib area, in the vicinity of the historic Cumbo tower, which was also included in development boundaries back in 2006.

The sprawling piece of agricultural land that separates Mosta from the Durumblat Road in Attard, is targeted for a massive development project by proponent Charles Azzopardi.

It is the second time that a development application is presented to the Planning Authority for the area known as tad-Dib.

But the Planning Authority had rejected a similar application two years ago, in what was hailed as a major victory by Alternattiva Demokratika chairperson Carmel Cacopardo, who represented Mosta residents objecting to the massive development.