Fast track permits for ‘temporary structures’

“Temporary and reversible” structures like tracks for bumping cars, stage platforms and luna parks which previously could only be erected for 30 days may now be erected for a maximum of 120 days in any particular year.

Such structures can already be erected through a Development Notification Order – a simplified planning procedure which does not foresee case officer reports, public board meetings and information to objectors.

Through the latest legal notice owners of these structures may seek a maximum of three extensions (of 30 days each) to the original 30 day permit.

Moreover owners have been given 10 extra days after the expiry of each 30 day permit to restore the site to its original state.

Presently owners have to restore the site affected by this development to its pristine state within 30 days.

Moreover when these temporary structures are erected in development zones, MEPA can now extend the temporary one-month permit to a maximum of four months following a written request by the developer. 

The legal notice foresees that a maximum of three extensions can be granted in different periods of the year. These extensions can be granted within a 100-metre radius of the original permit.

Presently anyone who wants to erect temporary structures for more than 30 days in any particular year has to apply for a full development permit.

Now owners of such facilities can apply for three additional 30-day extensions through the simplified Development Notification Order procedure.

Effectively this means that sites within development zones can be occupied by private developers for as long as 120 days a year in the absence of a full planning permit. 

In ODZ sites MEPA is precluded from issuing extensions beyond the original 30-day permit. But even in these sites developers have been granted an extra 10 days to clear the site over and above the present 30-day timeframe.

Permits for temporary and reversible structures can already be issued through a Development Notification Order. When located in Outside Development Zones, developers can still make use of the DNO facility but must give more detailed information.

In September 2013 the government had issued a legal notice; through which the simplified DNO procedure can be applied to “the reversible use of land for the parking of vehicles” when such development is located within development zones.  

In 2012 the issue of a permit for a circus in Naxxar through a DNO for a “reversible and temporary structure” was censured by planning ombudsman David Pace in a report issued in December 2013.

He recommended that the Development Notification Order should ensure that DNO permits respect structure plan policies protecting residents from visual intrusion, noise, vibration, atmospheric pollution, unusually high traffic generation, unusual operating times, or any other characteristic that constitutes bad neighbourliness.

Planning ombudsman David Pace had observed that this case illustrated “the complex and often unwieldy situation with regard to the holding of ‘temporary’ activities”.

In this case following MEPA’s decision not to issue a DNO permit, the circus was simply dismantled and re-erected a few metres away as there was nothing to prevent it from setting up once more in a ‘temporary’ manner once it had been dismantled and the activity stopped in terms of the temporary permit originally issued.