The Mepa board today approved two huge retail outlets situated in what used to be ODZ areas.

One outline application regarded a 8700 sq m area just in front of the Mosta MCAST. This used to be ODZ area but was then redescribed as an Area of Containment on which several industrial warehouses were built with permits.

The outline application spoke of a huge supermarket to be built on 1400 sq m of the site, with 200 parking spaces.

The supermarket would count residents all the way from Mellieha to Rabat among their clients, such is the catchment area it will aim for. The site is served by good arterial roads and there is a bus stop in front.

It will also have a childcare centre so that parents can shop on their own and leave the children in the nursery, which will also have a cafeteria.

On the first floor there will also be a fitness centre and a beauty centre.

In processing this application, the Directorate officers professed themselves perplexed because among the uses to which areas of containment could be converted to, a supermarket was not one of them. Consequently, Mepa asked architect Edwin Mintoff to provide justifications why a supermarket could be approved there, and, this being given, the Mepa officials were satisfied.

It would seem the same kind of justifications were provided in the Lidl at Ghaxaq and that in Qormi.

In the second application to be considered, Mepa approved an amendment to an already granted permit granted some years ago to change the Attard Bros outlet at Ta’ Qali, next door to the US Embassy, into a retail outlet selling all sorts of building material and equipment as well as furniture.

The skylights will be replaced by PV panels.

 

In the discussion at board level, member Timmy Gambin asked if archaeological investigations and monitoring had been carried out when the site was originally excavated seeing that in the US Embassy next door many archaeological remains had been found.