The Planning Authority has urged an appeal tribunal to reject the American University of Malta’s attempt to get the proposed extension of its Cottonera campus approved.
The PA turned down the application last year but the AUM appealed the decision.
In a report filed with the Environment and Planning Review Tribunal, the PA has now insisted that the appeal should be dismissed and its original decision to refuse the application confirmed.
An appeal hearing before the tribunal is due on Tuesday.
The PA board’s rejection last November had been unanimous, a decision hailed as a big victory by Cottonera residents and NGOs.
The AUM, owned by Jordanian investors Sadeen Group, wants to build a four-storey dormitory block and an underground parking facility in a public car park off Senglea Gate.
The developers are also seeking to restore the dilapidated but historic Knights building along Dock 1 in Cospicua while adding an additional floor.
The project further includes a new modern block in a public open area next to the Knights building and a new administration block on the other side.
On the site is a public open space, which was embellished a few years ago through EU funds.
The proposal has been fiercely opposed by a group of Cottonera residents and several NGOs on grounds that it would destroy the few remaining public open spaces in the area and ruin a historic skyline without contributing anything to the community in the surrounding area.
Objectors have expressed concern that the development would deface the historic Senglea bastions while the proposed alterations to the Knights Building were deemed too invasive, with a “destructive effect” on the heritage site.
PA board members took issue with the piecemeal approach and lack of holistic planning to the development, resulting in fragmentation of the master plan for the area. They also opposed the loss of open spaces and the incompatibility of the design with the urban and environmental characteristics of the zone.
In its appeal, the AUM insists the proposal is in line with the holistic approach discussed when a separate application to restore what is known as the British Building was approved.
It argues that the open spaces consist of a makeshift carpark and a boatyard and the land had been granted to Sadeen by title of emphyteusis.
The aim of the development, it says, is to turn Cottonera into a student city, with the dormitory planned to host students there.
But the PA has shot down each of these arguments, insisting there were “no sound planning justifications which could justify a breach to the [planning] policies”.
According to official data supplied last year by the AUM, there are 143 registered students, 59 of whom joined at the beginning of that academic year – a fifth of the 710 students promised when it was granted a five-year licence in 2016.
This raised questions over the AUM’s insistence on the need to expand its existing campus.
Last year, the then education minister, Evarist Bartolo, had said the AUM should not be granted any more public land until it showed it had enough students.