Updated 1.20pm with PM's comments
The Planning Authority is currently considering an application for a massive new supermarket on ODZ land in San Ġwann, adjacent to a private school.
The proposal is to build a two-storey supermarket with underground parking on a 7,000- square-metre site on Triq tal-Balal and Triq tal-Prepostu, in an area of San Ġwann known as Ta’ Ġnien Tut.
The site is just over 250 metres from another supermarket, while an application for a supermarket and a DIY store on a site directly across the road is still being processed.
The PA has been inundated with objections to the proposed development, particularly because the site in question is agricultural land outside the development zone and is close to a school, St Michael Foundation for Education.
Prime Minister Robert Abela told Times of Malta that he believes the proposal is a "non-starter" as it goes against the Labour government's broader vision.
San Ġwann Mayor Trevor Fenech said on Saturday that he intended to file an objection to the proposal.
The applicant is proposing to demolish existing structures, including illegal structures built on site, and develop the site in a supermarket with basement parking, stores at the ground and first floor levels and related offices.
According to the public application form submitted by architects JG Periti, Jason Pace is the sole owner of the site in question.
However, the PA website lists the developer as being Meleney Gauci.
The take-up of agricultural ODZ land, let alone land that is on the doorstep of a school and a protected ecological area, is certainly not necessary or legitimate
The total area of the site is around 12,000 square metres.
The area proposed for the project also abuts Wied Għomor and Wied il-Kbir, protected areas of ecological importance and sites of scientific importance.
Objectors insist that the application runs contrary to the PA’s rural policy and objectives of the Strategic Plan for Environment and Development, which limits land take-up for uses which are not necessary or legitimate in rural areas.
“San Ġwann already has numerous supermarkets and the take-up of agricultural ODZ land, let alone land that is on the doorstep of a school and a protected ecological area, is certainly not necessary or legitimate,” the objectors wrote in their representation filed with the PA.
St Michael is home to almost 500 children and over 100 educators. In an objection, the school’s senior assistant head, Carina Gerada Sinnott, said that, as part of their ongoing education and through initiatives like EkoSkola, the children are taught to respect and care for the environment and to protect it for future generations.
“This application runs roughshod over this sense of responsibility to protect the increasingly diminishing natural landscape that our country enjoys. It attempts to prioritise the construction of a supermarket over the health and well-being of our children and the protection of our limited natural environment,” she wrote.
Objectors noted that there is a pending application for the development of a supermarket and a DIY store on a site directly opposite the site, with underground parking.
This application was filed by Joe Cassar on behalf of JDG Holdings Ltd.
The Environment and Resources Authority had objected to this proposed development, which, it said, raised significant environmental concerns and was considered objectionable from an environmental point of view.
“The ERA is also concerned about the further sprawl, proliferation and intensification of urban type interventions within an area ODZ and the further formalisation of the site, since this may inopportunely serve as a predisposition for other similar proposals within the area as well as on a national scale,” it said.
Pace is also involved in another two bids to build supermarkets on ODZ land. One is on 5,500 square metres of land off the Birkirkara bypass and another on Triq Il-Kummerċ, Triq Is-Snajja and the Mrieħel bypass.
Mayor: PM backs me in opposing project
San Ġwann Mayor Trevor Fenech said on Saturday that he would be filing an objection to the project.
"This application should never have been filed," he said as he pledged to oppose the project.
Fenech said he had spoken to Prime Minister Robert Abela about the project, and said he was optimistic as Abela "was clear about him and the Labour Party backing our cause."
Abela confirmed that, telling Times of Malta that he did not want the project to go ahead and that the Labour Party would be backing the council in objecting to it.