The Rural Affairs and Environment Minister yesterday presented a number of amendments to the Development Planning Act that will strengthen the participation of, and tools available, to NGOs and the public.
During a press briefing in which several representatives of NGOs were present, Minister George Pullicino pointed out that the last amendments to the Development Planning Act were passed in 2001. He added that these amendments are the result of a consultation process between Mepa, the ministry, the public and various NGOs.
“The final proposals were approved by Cabinet – Parliament approved the first reading and now they are going to discuss the second reading,” he said.
A development permit in particular areas such as Outside Development Zones, Scheduled areas 1 and 2, Special Areas of Conservation cannot be executed if there is a third party appeal.
Mepa architect John Ebejer explained that if there is a development permit in one of these areas, the developer will not able to commence works until any appeals have been heard.
“The development will be suspended for a certain period of time to ensure that there are no appeals. If there are any appeals, the board will have to take a decision within a maximum of three months,” he said.
Minister Pullicino pointed out that this amendment will help conserve any buildings or green areas. “The application will be ‘frozen’ for a certain period of time to make sure there are no appeals.”
Another important amendment welcomed by the NGOs is the period of registration of interested parties for any development applications has been increased from 15 to 20 working days.
The minister pointed out that this process of registration, more commonly known as objections, will allow any third parties to officially register their interest in the application.
“They do not have to submit all the information within the 20 working days – this can be done after – but at least they will be known as registered interested parties who want to make a contribution,” said Mr Pullicino.
A third amendment concerns the local plans. Mr Ebejer explained that if Mepa will make any changes to the local plans, these changes will go through a consultation process before they are approved.
However, he pointed out, the consultation process will only concern the proposed changes and not the whole local plan.
The fourth amendment proposes appointing an independent person on the Mepa board who has a background of cultural heritage.
Another amendment – described by Mr Pullicino as very important – will allow the project description statement of development projects to be made available on the Mepa website.
Applicants will be required to send at least 10 registered letters to nearby residents to ensure that there is enough information about new developments, applications involving new development, re-development, the addition of floors and/or change of use.
Furthermore, applicants of major projects in ODZ are required to put up an A2 billboard on site which is clearly visible from the nearest arterial or distributor road.
Mr Pullicino said that these amendments will be more effective along with the recently launched e-applications which allow the public to access the Mepa applications and download all the site maps from home.