Mepa’s own environment planning department was not involved in the site selection exercise for the proposed American University of Malta because the Prime Minister’s Office insisted it should all be kept confidential, according to the planning authority’s CEO.
Johann Buttigieg was yesterday grilled by the House Environment Committee, with NGOs and MPs lambasting the “superficial, amateur report”, shorn of technical and scientific evaluations, which Mr Buttigieg’s office drafted for the Office of the Prime Minister.
The original brief was to identify a site of 50,000 square metres – half of which had to be in government ownership – in the southeast of Malta, Mr Buttigieg said. Mepa was now looking at 100 sites each of over 25,000 square metres in the south of Malta – extending south of Marsa, Mr Buttigieg clarified.
These sites included Forts San Rokku and San Salvatore and also comprised a host of government and Joint Office lands.
Sites included Forts San Rokku and San Salvatore
Once the preliminary options were whittled down to a handful, they would be submitted to detailed environment impact assessments, Mr Buttigieg said.
He refused to say whether the new sites would be excluding parts of Żonqor or outside development zone (ODZ) areas.
Mr Buttigieg explained that, at the government’s request, his office and the Government Property Division had identified three sites for the university – Ta’ Barkat, Fort San Leonardo and Żonqor.
Ta’ Barkat was immediately dropped because it was the site of a sewage treatment plant. In its 14-page report, Żonqor was commended for having less of an impact than San Leonardo. When it was pointed out that Żonqor had been recommended for scheduling, Mr Buttigieg replied that it had not yet been scheduled.
Opposition leader Simon Busuttil said Mr Buttigieg “should not insult our intelligence” by insisting that he had not selected Żonqor, when the report clearly demonstrated a marked preference towards Żonqor.
Din l-Art Ħelwa representative Joanna Spiteri Staines questioned how a serious site selection exercise could have been carried out when only two sites were considered.
She appealed for the site to be a brown field or historic site outside ODZ land. She also called for an objective planning group made up of experts.
Astrid Vella from Flimkien Għal Ambjent Aħjar said that photos of Żonqor accompanying the site selection exercise were taken back in summer before the November report, in a bid to portray the area as a dry, arid area when two thirds was being actively farmed.
Architect and PN candidate Giorgio Schembri asked Mr Buttigieg why he had not come armed with a baseline study on the impact of the project on Żonqor. He remarked that the area earmarked for the university amounted to a fifth of the natural park.
He questioned why the University of Malta was built on 120 tumuli of land and hosted 10,000 students while the proposed American university needed between 80 to 90 tumuli to cater for 4,000 students.