This time, nine years ago, many of us were applauding a Planning Authority decision which turned down a planning control application to transform agricultural land on the outskirts of Mosta into a development site. The application was a logical conclusion of the 2006 Rationalisation of Development Zone Boundaries exercise, as a result of which Parliament with a PN majority transformed 2 million square metres of land outside the development zone (ODZ), primarily agricultural land, into land which can be developed.
That was March 2017. Next Tuesday, 3 March 2026, the Executive Council of the Planning Authority will consider a second attempt to transform this open space into a development zone by defining what can be developed in the area. Nine years down the line, although there are some minor changes to the proposal under consideration, the basic issues remain. Substantial changes to the development zone boundaries, devouring scarce agricultural land, are unacceptable in principle.
What was unacceptable in 2017 has not become acceptable today.
The basics of the application under consideration were determined on the drawing board when the parcelling of the land was determined. The current layout is thus substantially determined by land speculative reasons and not by urban planning. The basic criterion used in parcelling this land for development is the maximisation of profits and not optimisation of an environment which enhances the quality of life of our residential neighbourhoods.
The site of the current application (PC 021/19) has an approximate area of 41,370 square metres and will be schemed for three storeyed development. The Planning Authority report on the application, released recently describes the site as "predominantly composed of fields, although it also includes some existing buildings and parts of already formed schemed roads".
The application currently under consideration introduces four basic changes to the application which was dismissed nine years ago.
The first change introduces a front garden to the proposed development. Approximately a 3-metre depth along all the proposed streets will now be undeveloped. This reduces slightly the proposed footprint of the effective development throughout the site.
The second change adds 350 square metres to the previously proposed open space in the proposed development. One of the originally proposed urban blocks has been split in two through the introduction of an additional road. Finally, a mix-use area has been introduced.
Instead of observing current legislation (section 136 of the Code of Police Laws) which establishes a minimum distance of residential development from a cemetery at 183 metres, the proposal extends the proposed development to within 20 metres of the existing cemetery. For some strange reason the Department of Environmental Health has no objection to this.
This is the mess to which current land use planning in Malta has been reduced.
Ideally this agricultural land should not be developed, instead being nurtured as a large open space, re-establishing nature across the road from the Mosta residential area.
The only reasonable alternative which could make sense would be a pilot scheme of low-density carbon neutral housing development. It is an opportunity to transform the negatives generated by the rationalisation scheme into environmental positives.
This planning control application contradicts government stated efforts in favour of protecting and improving existing open spaces. It is ever so clear that, when push comes to shove, government's talk on the environment it is just an exercise of lip service.
An architect and civil engineer, the author is a former Chairperson of ADPD-The Green Party in Malta. [email protected] , http://carmelcacopardo.wordpress.com