The following are headlines from yesterday’s papers:

-         Hondoq local plan ‘should be amended’

-         Public land reform ‘reeks of political involvement’

-         PA rejects ‘sprawling’ villa on Wied il-Kbir ODZ land

-         Illegal storage facility ‘set for sanctioning’

All the above were taken from yesterday’s papers. It has become a daily story with claim after claim that such and such a development will be destroying yet another parcel of precious land; that rightly or wrongly the public suspects that politicians (ie the government) are interfering in the assessment of development applications; and that the country at large seems to have become crazed with development mania.

The basis for the present state of affairs has long been coming, beyond the present legislature, but it is now that it seems to have reached full flood. The present administration built its electoral appeal on what was generally understood as facilitating development applications. The term ODZ (Outside the Development Zone) has become an invitation to come up with creative ideas to breach what should have been a stronger restriction. The American University of Malta saga saw a large parcel of ODZ being suddenly open to development.

There is a concerted effort to find new ways to expedite the processing of applications and there has also been an effort to widen the parameters of what is permissible or otherwise. Hotels have been allowed to go up by two more floors, big projects get an application on a different process than ordinary ones.

It is true that the government has taken some steps to safeguard the environment but the general perception out there is that this government is pro-development. As one can see, there is an explosion of development all around Malta. This has become known, quite understandably, as crane island’ from the amount of cranes around.

We mentioned ODZ and there have been so many holes punched into this regulation that make the appellation quite useless and non-sensical.

Now a new frontier seems to have been found: if development cannot expand laterally, it can expand vertically. The craze has not been really apparent so far but in a few months or years we will gaze on a number of skyscrapers dotting our landscape.

There are many considerations to make here: can the country’s infrastructure absorb all this development? Can the roads? With some 70,000 dwelling units lying around unsold and many times unfinished, will the current building spread increase the number of unsold units?

It cannot be honestly said this blight is the result of this administration only. The previous administration was the one responsible for increasing the area of land for development when it came up with the scheme to correct some anomalies in the development zone and it ended up adding thousands and thousands of square metres to the development zone through what was euphemistically called the ‘rationalisation’ exercise.

The present administration split up Mepa into two units. The judgment on this exercise is still out.

There have been some signal rejection of applications, the most recent being the long-standing Hondoq ir-Rummien application. But one must look at the wider picture. While the environmental groups were rejoicing that the idea of a tourist village at Hondoq at long last bit the ground, no one seems to have noted that just a few weeks ago the new authority permitted an entire new village to be created on the outskirts of Mellieha.

Whatever its predecessor did or did not do, this government is giving the perception that somehow development is slipping through its fingers.

We may wake up when it will be too late.