Lorry Sant henchman set to benefit from new MEPA policy

The Malta Environment and Planning Authority is set to remove a condition banning the construction of penthouses on land in Hal-Ghaxaq belonging to Luqa Developments Ltd, a company owned by Lorry Sant henchman Piju Camilleri and his family.

The land was controversially included in development boundaries by a PN government in 2006, on condition that no penthouses or washrooms are allowed on the roofs of the new residences.

MEPA has already approved an application presented by Ludwig Camilleri in 2006 and approved three years later, for the construction of 47 basement garages and semi-basement garages, two shops and 48 residential units on the formerly agricultural area.

A condition imposed when the site - previously designated as an outside development zone (ODZ) - was included in the building boundaries, stipulated that no penthouses or washrooms are allowed.

But MEPA has now announced a public consultation with the declared aim of removing this condition.

The site is surrounded on the west and east by buildings with a height limitation of three floors and penthouse level, and by agricultural land which remains outside development schemes on the south. The fact that penthouses can be developed on adjacent buildings was pointed out in the case officer's report for the permit issued in 2009.

MaltaToday is informed that MEPA's justification for the policy change is the discrepancy between the building parameters for adjacent buildings on which penthouses are allowed, and the site owned by Luqa Developments, where it is not permitted to build any. 

Planning criteria for sites included in the 2006 rationalisation exercise tended to be stricter to minimise the visual impact of development abutting on the countryside.

The land in question belongs to a company owned by Piju Camilleri. As works manager with the late Labour minister Lorry Sant during the 1980s, Camilleri was an influential figure within the Planning Areas Permits Board, the body that issued building permits.

According to businessman Joe Borg's testimony before the Permanent Commission against Corruption presided over by Mr Justice Victor Borg Costanzi, Camilleri, with Sant's blessing, used to request plots and money in return for granting building permits to individual contractors.

Borg also revealed a 1981 promise-of-sale agreement between himself and Piju Camilleri, to transfer 30 plots of land from Luqa Developments back to Borg and Victor Balzan. The agreement, signed by accountant Lino Cauchi, was never effected after the agreement went missing when Cauchi disappeared in February 1982.

Back in 1994, Camilleri applied with MEPA to include his site in the development scheme for the construction of terraced houses. The application was later withdrawn.

In August 2003, his son Arvin applied to construct a terraced house, and the application was again refused by MEPA following an appeal.
But in 2006 the site was added to development zones.

Former Minister George Pullicino defended this decision in an interview with MaltaToday published in June 2006.

"The argument is simple. Has Piju Camilleri's land been included by MEPA on the basis of the Cabinet's criteria? If yes, I am not interested whether the land belongs to the Archbishop, to Piju Camilleri or to the Prime Minister's son. Should I decree that Piju Camilleri's land should never be included wherever it lies? Would I not be accused of discrimination?"

In 2007, the MEPA board approved a Planning Control (PC) application which set three conditions for any application on this site: no semi-basements were allowed, nor any penthouses or washrooms.

In 2009, the Planning Directorate considered that an application for 47 basement garages and 48 residential units with two underground levels was not against the PC limits for the area, and recommended approval.

But former MEPA chairman Austin Walker argued that the PC rules could not be interpreted by the directorate as in any way approving this development.

Camilleri, assisted by Prof. Ian Refalo and architect and then Labour MP Charles Buhagiar, claimed he was being  discriminated against by MEPA in the treatment of the application. Buhagiar showed photomontages to show that surrounding buildings were higher as these had washrooms and penthouses on top.

Subsequently, the development was approved after some modifications were made.