The obliteration of this country continued last Thursday during the latest meeting of the Planning Authority Board, which approved yet another two mega development projects that will change the face of Malta.
Firstly, the PA Board approved a 744-residential unit complex at the site of the former Mistra Village.
One needs only take a brief look at the project visuals to see how the area will be transformed completely, and not for the better.
The project is not only massive in terms of the number of residences that it includes – but also for the number of ancillary facilities. Like the 1,800 square metres of retail space, the 990 square metres of restaurants, the offices, the spa, the ‘Pool Clubhouse’, and, of course, the communal pool.
The project is simply massive – too big for the area it will occupy. It actually looks like a small city, located on the periphery of another city, and perched on top of a ridge.
Only three out of nine members on the PA Board voted against the application, arguing that a development of this scale would not be allowed on a ridge under today’s policies.
The problem here was that this was not a new application, but rather an expired 2013 permit that was being renewed.
The permit for this application was approved in 2013, when it was presumably still permissible to build a small metropolis on a ridge, but construction never started.
In the meantime, regulations have changed. But the project, which has now been given a new lease on life, does not need to comply to current rules and regulations.
PN MP Marthese Portelli, who was one of those who voted against, also cited traffic concerns.
Questions have been raised, in fact, on the impact that such a project will have on the area – in particular on Xemxija Hill - the main road that leads to Mellieha and Gozo beyond.
If studies were carried out with the original application, have they been updated?
And what about other infrastructure, such as water, electricity and drainage? Can they take the added strain from such a massive development?
The second mega development to be approved by the board is another phase of the Smart City project – once planned as a technology hub that would contribute greatly to Malta’s economy and generate upwards of 6,000 jobs but which has been largely a flop and is morphing into a real estate project.
The phase approved last week consists of 372 residential units, a commercial complex and a residents’ plaza with communal pool. Concerns were raised during the meeting about the project’s height and visual impact, especially from the Xghajra side. But in the end all board members bar one voted in favour of the project.
Once again, no importance was given to the way these projects are affecting the country’s landscape. It is also clear that our planning regulations per se do not take such things into account.
But we must also look at all this from a political angle.
As a senior member of the General Workers Union pointed out last week, the Labour Party and its media have raised no objection to the gargantuan Mistra project, which is situated not that far away from a particular area that was at the centre of so much controversy during the 2008 election campaign.
While the PL had attacked so fiercely plans for an outdoor nightclub on land owned by then PN MP Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando, it finds no objection now to the development on such a massive scale on a ridgeline just a stone’s throw away.
The same can be said on the Nationalist Party and its media on projects that were approved under Nationalist administrations.
Unfortunately, our political parties will only criticize or defend a project as long as this suits their political needs. Consistency when it comes to the preservation or destruction of our environment has never been their forte.