Planning Authority top dog Johann Buttigieg believes Malta is more beautiful now than it was 10 years ago.  

"I think Malta in general is in a better shape than it was," Johann Buttigieg said, adding that while the country's landscape has changed, “I don't agree that there's been uglification."

Buttigieg returned to the Planning Authority as executive chairman in January, having already served as its CEO in the past between 2013 and 2019.  His return prompted dismay among environmental groups, one of which said Buttigieg was being brought "back from the skip of history."

Asked if Sliema, the busy town where Buttigieg lives, has become more beautiful in the last 10 or 15 years, Buttigieg said it has.

"But I would agree that it is not more beautiful than 30 years ago, when they decided to change houses of two stories into buildings of eight and ten stories," he said.

People ask for more development, not less

In an interview with RTK103 show host Andrew Azzopardi, Buttigieg argued that while local plans - drafted in 2006 and the subject of much controversy - required "surgical intervention", there was no question about reducing existing development zones. 

People do not want that, he said, arguing that the government had halted plans to revise local plans more than 10 years ago because almost all the feedback received during public consultations was that people wanted more, not less, virgin land to be made available to development. 

Of 7,000 submissions during that consultation, almost 6,700 lobbied for broader development zones, he said. 

Buttigieg said that while two unnamed local plans were almost exhausted, with most permissible development zones already built up to their full capacity, others still have a "substantial amount" of building volume to develop.

PA's massive backlog 

It is understood that Buttigieg was brought back with a clear mandate to tackle an ever-growing backlog of planning permits - an issue developers frequently flag as their top concern.

By law, the PA must process applications within 100 days. In reality, that rarely happens and currently applications can take years to complete. 

Asked about the backlog on Saturday, Buttigieg said that there are currently around 6,700 applications being processed by the PA.

Roughly 70 per cent of those have exceeded the 100 day deadline, he conceded.

"Technically, those people can take legal action against us," Buttigieg said. The plan is to bring that backlog down to roughly 3,000 by the end of the year, he said.

Box-ticking boards

He said planning boards and committees were often adopting an overly rigid approach in assessing applications, ticking boxes rather than using their expertise to assess applications. 

A design advisory committee, for instance, was originally intended as a forum in which design architects could discuss ideas with planners. Instead, the committee simply handed down approvals or objections, he said. 

Conflicts of interest?

Buttigieg was also asked about his previous work as a planning consultant. 

He acknowledged working for developers like (Malta Developers Association president) Michael Stivala but insisted he had represented people and entities from all walks of life. 

"I appeared, for example, on behalf of people objecting to an Outside Development Zone application in Baħrija," he said. Buttigieg said he also represented the Naxxar local council in their objection to an old people's home.

"The invoices I issued are public knowledge, and one can access them," he said.