Augustinian Order receives flak from church's environment commission

The Augustinian Order received flak from the Catholic church’s environment commission over its decision to rent out land for the development of a high-rise project.

The order rented out an open space adjacent to its priory in Paceville to the company that runs the Baystreet complex for the development of a 12-storey hotel and office complex.

When the story was outed by MaltaToday in June, Archbishop Charles Scicluna asked the church’s environment commission to draw up a report on the matter.

The report was published this afternoon by the curia.

Significantly, the commission said the project focussed on the financial returns of a developer rather than took into account the needs of the community.

“The plans should have centred more on the needs of the community than focusing purely on the financial returns that an ordinary Maltese developer would have sought. Such a community-focused process could have led to a totally different project than the one proposed, both in terms of height and use,” the commission said.

The commission concluded that the proposed development was in breach of planning policies linked to high rise buildings and fresh plans submitted recently were not very different.

The commission said a real regeneration of the site required a public consultation with the communities that live close to the site.

It described the project currently awaiting processing by the Planning Authority as one that fits in “the ‘more-of-the-same’ category of projects”.

“The concept and design process of the project as well as its future use should have been one that is a beacon of hope in Maltese society, which is fast idolising the property market without any other consideration and where the planning system is being eroded by the authorities in order to facilitate unsustainable development practices,” the report said.

The commission said that it had concluded its report in August and presented its case to the landowners, asking for the project to be revisited.

It appears that the developer submitted fresh plans to the PA, which in the commission’s opinion were not materially different from the original ones.

“The main difference is that the height of the building is slightly lower than originally proposed. This means that its allowable height will not be determined by the Floor-Area-Ratio Policy, but through other policies which, through the piecemeal amendments over the years, have the tendency to become strictly more geared to developers’ requirements than to communities’ needs,” the commission said.

The land, currently being used as a makeshift car park, was rented to Bay Street Holdings, whose owners include George Muscat of GAP Holdings, and Paul Camilleri.

The order’s provincial Leslie Gatt had confirmed the financial arrangements last June.

“There is a rental contract on the land between the Augustinians and Bay Street Holdings Ltd, so no sale has taken place, neither any temporary or perpetual emphyteutical concession,” he told MaltaToday.

Read the report below: