Developers will have to pay considerably higher sums for lost parking spaces, the Planning Authority announced yesterday.

The PA said it has set up a national Green Transport Fund for the purpose of supporting capital projects that will improve the land transportation situation in Malta and Gozo.

The monies for this fund will be generated from part of the revised fees that developers will have to pay should they not provide car parking spaces within their development.

“The new revised rates will better reflect the market value of garage spaces and will be homogenous for all localities. A three-tier rate system is being introduced, whereby a one car space not provided for on-site will cost the developer €2,500. From the third to the ninth car space not provided for on site, the developer will have to make a contribution of €6,000 per car space. From the tenth car space upwards a €10,000 contribution per car space will be imposed.”

The old contribution system, which fees were established in the 90s, used a model which differentiated between those localities which were part of the Commuters Parking Provisions System (CPPS) and those that were part of the Urban Improvement Fund (UIF) system. A developer who did not provide parking on site within a CPPS area, except for Mosta and St.Paul’s Bay, had to make a contribution of €2,096.43 per car space. If in Mosta or St.Paul’s Bay the contribution had to be of €1,863.49 and €1,164.68 respectively. Within those localities which were part of the UIF system, a developer was requested to pay €1,164.68 per car space.

The PA said it had not drastically increased fees for a shortfall of up to two cars so as not to adversely effect small businesses. “The contribution is significantly steeper for larger developments and should act as a deterrent for developers that opt out of providing onsite parking.”

While 70% of the generated fees will still be directed towards the locality-based Development Planning Fund, the remaining 30% will be directed towards green transport proposals called the Island-wide Green Transport Fund (IGTF), the authority said.

The Green Transport Fund will be open to all (including ministries, departments, local councils, NGO's, private sector and private individuals) on a competitive basis with the Planning Authority then selecting the best projects for funding. Proposals would need to tangibly show a reduction in traffic and parking related impacts.

The Authority is also introducing for the first time a mechanism which will allow applicants to request a refund from the on-street parking contribution they would have paid. The request can only be made under two circumstances; that an applicant with a valid development permit signs a declaration that he/she will not be ‘using’ the planning permission or where the applicant, through a new valid permit, provides additional parking spaces on site. 

Reacting, the Kamra tal-Periti (Chamber of Architects) condemned the “behaviour of the PA, which is arrogant enough to triple, quadruple and quintuple its revenue generating mechanisms, without deigning to even consult anybody in the industry, and without giving a decent notice to the principal actors in the industry.”

It said the PA had “unnecessarily created a situation where panicked developers pressured periti to submit planning applications by midnight of 31st May, jamming the PA’s servers as a result.”

The chamber also said the scheme was disguised as planning policy intended to help alleviate traffic problems but was nothing more than “a crude revenue-generating mechanism.”

“After 20 years of the CPPS, does the Planning Authority have any evidence that the policy has actually helped alleviate traffic?”

“The provision of more parking encourages the use of private vehicles as opposed to public transport, and therefore it promotes road traffic congestion; research has shown that parking provision can actually be a disincentive against public transport, especially if it were free for the users of the building,” the chamber said.

“The extraordinary increase in CPPS fees will not reduce private vehicular traffic, neither will it promote green transport practices. It will certainly encourage developers to construct ever larger under-ground car-parking facilities, involving deeper excavations, more generation of waste, and more consumption of energy to maintain adequate environmental conditions in these facilities.”