Mare d’Oro land swap gets green light for 12 villas

Twelve semi-detached villas with pools have been approved by the Malta Environment and Planning Authority on an open space in San Gwann, that was granted as compensation to the owners of the Fekruna Bay restaurant by the previous government on the eve of the 2013 general election.

The land was subsequently sold to Gozitan developer Joseph Portelli, who presented an application in May and had it approved in six months.

To make way for the villa development, an old farmhouse will be demolished against the advice of MEPA’s own Heritage Protection Unit, which described the farmhouse as a “vernacular structure worthy of protection”.

The HPU requested the integration of the farmhouse in the new development. It also called on MEPA to seek the advice of the Superintendence for Cultural Heritage.

But at a meeting held in August, the planning directorate’s advisory team concluded that the building included numerous recent accretions and that its value did not merit prejudicing the development over the larger site.

The Planning Directorate also justified its demolition as the farmhouse was out of the road alignment.

As a result of these considerations, the Superintendence for Cultural Heritage was not consulted.

MEPA received several letters of objection claiming that the development was not compatible with the surrounding development and that the farmhouse and existing rubble walls should be protected.

But the area, located between Triq Wied Ghollieqa and Triq ir-Russett, lies within development zones and had already been zoned for the development of villas in the local plans and the development fulfilled all the policy conditions.

Eight of the villas will have a frontage on a planned road while another four will be accessed through an internal drive.

The new villas will be set on 3,012 square metres of land, granted by the former Nationalist government in compensation to Raymond Vella for relinquishing ownership of the now-demolished Mare d’Oro restaurant in Fekruna Bay, Xemxija.

Apart from the San Gwann land on which the villas are to be built, Vella was also granted 2,630 square metres of land in Ta’ Xghajrat in Swieqi as part of the compensation deal. The two land parcels were valued at  €4.3 million.

The land was swapped to enable the government to expropriate the Mare d’Oro site and restore it to the public after it was repeatedly included in development zones.