Legal notice to regularise minor planning irregularities

Just a month before the general elections, the government has used the power of incumbency by issuing a legal notice aimed at regularising minor irregularities like encroachments on public pavements in residential areas that took place before January 2013.

The promise to regularise past illegal developments is made in the PN's electoral programme that specifies that this will not apply to cases involving an "environmental outrage". 

The legal notice was issued yesterday on the same day that the PL presented its proposals on planning which also foresee the regularisation of past irregularities.

The developments which can be regularised through the legal notice include pilasters, ramps and steps which do not protrude more than 30 centimetres beyond the official alignment onto the pavement as long as the pavement width of 1.2 metres is retained.

The amnesty also applies to increases in height of less than 1.25 meters from the approved permit but the increase in height should never apply to additional floors.

According to MEPA the legal notice addresses the social realities of a number of families who ended up with a property that could not be modified or supplied with water and electricity meters due to the departures from permits.  But the concession applies to any irregularity which took place before January 2013.

A concession is also being given to a number of minor encroachments which exist within the footprint of a built property. This includes cases where the façade of a building encroaches within the first 1/3 of a front garden,

The amnesty also applies to cases where an owner changed the use of a unit into a residential development or where a permitted residential unit was subdivided into two or more units, But persons who have changed a washroom in to a penthouse will not benefit from this amnesty.

The legal notice also provides for those cases where internal alterations or modifications have been carried out to garage levels, so long that no entry or exit points are eliminated and the garage has more than one level of parking.

To benefit from these concessions, owners of dwellings will, through an architect, have to submit to MEPA a request, certifying that the structure to which the request relates, had existed prior to the 29th January 2013. The Architect will also need to submit a site plan, photographic evidence and a plan showing the difference in size from what had been approved by the Authority. A fee will be charged for the processing of these requests. Applicants and their architects will eventually be informed by the MEPA Enforcement Directorate whether their request has been accepted or not. 

These concessions apply only to development which took place before 29th January 2013, and should not be regarded as a precedent for approval of deviations from the requirements that may be presented in plans for the building of new premises submitted to MEPA. All concessions are granted saving third party rights.