'Free for all' policy on public land

Fancy developing a brand new hotel on public land?

It is official: you can apply for a planning permit, without first seeking prior consent from the government which owns the land.  

All you have to do is to inform the Government Property Division (GPD) of your intention to develop the land in question and than wait for a planning permit.

It is only after the permit is issued by the Planning Authority that consent for the development is granted by the GPD. But the GPD may still withhold consent, even if a permit is issued by the Malta Environment and Planning Authority.

This policy was confirmed by a spokesperson for the parliamentary secretary responsible for planning and lands, Michael Falzon.

“The normal practice followed by the GPD, whenever development applications are made by the private sector for development on public land, is that the GPD is given the necessary mandatory notice. The GPD will then await for the outcome of such an application,” a spokesperson for the parliamentary secretary told MaltaToday.

Over the past few months, MaltaToday has reported a number of cases involving applications on public land where the applicant registered the consent of the owner when presenting the planning application for the development.  

These included two applications for brand new beach concessions on Sliema’s rocky coast (one in Qui-Si-Sana and one below the Fortizza) and an application for a brand new hotel on the Ghadira public car park. All three planning applications state that the owner (government) has issued its “consent” for the development.

When presenting a planning application, applicants have three options: either to register as the sole owners of the land, to declare that they do not own the land in question but have the consent of the owner, or to declare that they hold the site under a title of a lease.  
No option exists for developers who apply to develop public land without first seeking the consent of the owner as this scenario is not envisioned by planning law.

Prior to the MEPA reform in 2010, applicants could apply on any land parcel even if it belonged to third parties.  For example the application for the Verdala golf course encroached on both public and private land. This led to a situation where developers could apply for projects encroaching on the property of others. One of the aims of the MEPA reform was to address this rather absurd scenario, which allows for a permit to be issued on land belonging to third parties.

In fact, the Environment and Planning Law was amended to stipulate that the consent of the owner is always required, except when the applicant holds a government lease on the property in question.  In such cases, the applicant is only expected to inform the government property division and confirm that the site is in government ownership.  

No exception is made in the law with regard to planning applications involving development on public land in cases where the developer is not a leaseholder.

But apparently, the policy applying to the existing leaseholder has been unofficially extended to any application by the private sector encroaching on public land.