Appeal deadlines relaxed, controversial changes remain in planning law overhaul

New plans to overhaul Planning Authority appeals will relax timeframes for filing appeals but keep many other controversial provisions in place.

A revised version of Bill 144 seen by Times of Malta indicates that the government will reverse its plan to slash appeals deadlines to 20 days, returning that to the original 30-day limit currently in place.

It will also drop provisions that would have allowed developers to move ahead with works if tribunals and courts did not decide on appeals within stipulated time limits.

But many of Bill 144’s most controversial elements will remain in place.

Courts will still be precluded from annulling permits outright and will instead only be able to send them back to the PA’s appeals tribunal for reconsideration. Objectors appealing a Planning Authority decision will only be able to argue points they raised in front of the PA.

Furthermore, the PA’s appeals board – the Environment and Planning Review Tribunal – will have the power to approve applications without hearing objectors if it believes the required changes are not “material” in nature.

News of the revised bill comes as activists prepare to march on Saturday in a national protest against plans to overhaul the planning system. One of the groups encouraging people to attend the protest, Il-Kollettiv, said the amendments were "far from satisfactory".

Bill 144 is one of two planning bills that the government quietly tabled in parliament in the summer. Its twin – Bill 143 – seeks to radically overhaul Planning Authority rules and is seen as the more controversial of the two.

Times of Malta also revealed last July that a third piece of legislation, taking the form of a legal notice that will make it easier to regularise illegal buildings on ODZ land, is also in the works.

While bills require a parliamentary vote to be passed into law, legal notices can be introduced by the respective minister without parliamentary debate.

The plans were met with backlash, and following a public outcry, the government agreed to public consultations on the two draft pieces of legislation.

Times of Malta is informed that talks on re-drafting Bill 143 are still taking place.

In August, Planning Minister Clint Camilleri said one of that bill’s most controversial provisions – empowering the PA to deviate from existing planning laws and policies – would be removed.

Government sources said that there is still no fixed timeline for when the amended versions of Bills 143 and 144 will be presented in parliament.

'Concluding stages'

The revised Bill 144 text seen by Times of Malta is in its “concluding stages” but has not yet been finalised, sources said.

The document indicates that those objecting to a Planning Authority decision will still get 30 days to submit an appeal to the Environment and Planning Review Tribunal (EPRT), after it was originally planned to reduce that to 20.

However, someone who disagrees with the tribunal will still only have 20 days to appeal to the court – this has always been the case.

Conversely, the revised bill seeks to slash appeals timeframes to 15 days – down from the original 20 – for appeals filed on the basis of orders by the environmental regulator, ERA, which concern compliance, monitoring and enforcement issues. 

One of the most significant changes to the current appeals system proposed in July is that developers will have to wait for the outcome of an appeal (tribunal and court) before they can begin works.

The first draft of the law would have allowed developers to go ahead with works if the EPRT or appeals court failed to conclude proceedings within 10 months of the PA’s original decision. All works carried out after that 10-month period would have been deemed legal, even if the permit was eventually not granted.

The government now plans to remove that provision, meaning work will not be able to begin until a final decision is made.

Sources said appeals are usually decided within 10 months, so “the added incentive to speed up the process is not that necessary”.

But several clauses proposed in July will remain.

Among the most controversial is the court losing its power to outright nullify an application. It will instead have to provide legal guidelines to the EPRT to reassess the case.

Furthermore, appeals will only be allowed on the basis of arguments raised during the initial public consultation/objection period of a permit. This means NGOs and individual objectors will have to cite specific policies when objecting to have any standing in future appeals.

The appeals tribunal will also retain the power to enact changes which do not include “material changes” to a planning application without re-consulting interested parties or external consultees, which are usually government bodies such as the Environment and Resources Authority or the Superintendence of Cultural Heritage.

Changes to a plan are not considered “material changes” if they involve less than a five per cent increase of the site area, or a total volume increase of no more than 10 per cent.

Material changes involve anything from adding floors or increasing a development’s height, shifting its alignment or changing its use.

Committee working on redrafts

A committee led by the prime minister’s head of secretariat, Mark Mallia, and including various ministers, has been tasked by Prime Minister Robert Abela with working on redrafts of Bills 143 and 144.

That committee also held meetings with a team speaking on behalf of eNGOs and residents’ groups, which included activists Wayne Flask and Ingram Bodin, as well as environmental lawyer Claire Bonello.

In comments to Times of Malta, Flask – who is among those heading residents’ rights group Il-Kollettiv – said they had met twice with the government and gone through the bills “paragraph by paragraph”.

He declined to comment on those discussions, save for saying they were “constructive”. However, he encouraged people to attend Saturday’s protest.

“Although we are not involved in the organisation of the protest, we encourage residents to attend because the attempt to shut them out of decisions that affect their quality of life should be condemned, and recent planning decisions confirm that the scenario is still skewed in favour of a handful of leading developers,” he said.

The protest, led by Moviment Graffitti, will be held in front of the Law Courts at 10am on Saturday.