Planning Minister Clint Camilleri has insisted that the developer behind plans to develop the Villa Rosa site did not dictate policy objectives for a local plan review of the St Julian’s area.

“The developer did not give me any objectives. These were drafted by technical people,” Camilleri said, though he acknowledged that the developer had sought “a number” of meetings with him to lobby for change.

It was “only natural” for investors with such big plans to pitch their ideas to policymakers, he said, adding that the developer – AC Group, led by Anton Camilleri tal-Franċiż – had told him that PN leader Bernard Grech was very receptive to the plans when he presented them to him.

The Planning Minister was appearing before the committee after accepting a PN request to answer the committee’s questions about the local plan review approved by the cabinet earlier this month.

Controversy over the government’s Villa Rosa plans erupted after Times of Malta revealed that Robert Abela’s cabinet had approved plans to revise the area’s local plan.

Times of Malta subsequently revealed that the review’s objectives, published for public consultation by the Planning Authority two weeks ago, were practically mirrored, word-for-word, a list of policy objectives included in a presentation drafted by the project’s developers, AC Group, and their architects.

AC Group is seeking to develop a series of hotels across three towers rising 39, 22 and 22 floors respectively in the area.

Developers already have a permit to develop a significantly lower-density project in the area but argue that their revised plans include significantly more public open space than their existing PA permit requires them to provide.  

'Our hearts are not tied to anything'

Speaking before the committee on Wednesday, the planning minister said nothing was set in stone when it comes to the local plan revision.

“Our hearts are not tied to anything… we are in the policy objective phase. Once policies are set, we can comb through it one line at a time,” Camilleri told the committee.

Clint Camilleri appearing before the committee on Wednesday.

Camilleri said the review is being carried out in the same way as reviews of the Ħondoq ir-Rummien and Marsascala local plans and insisted there was nothing untoward about the proposal or the way it was being handled.

He argued that the local plan review objectives would help set firm limits on building heights allowed in the area, claiming that as things stood, the developer could use policies like the one focused on landmark buildings to build as high as they wanted.

The revision would set a hard limit on building heights, he said. No mention was made of the existing local plan for the area, which also sets building heights for the Villa Rosa area through area policy NHPV 13.

When pressed by PN MP Rebekah Borg to publish correspondence between himself and the Planning Authority about the local plan review objectives, the minister said he was not sure whether the law allowed him to do so.

PN MP Stanley Zammit asked whether other entities responsible for infrastructure – from Transport Malta to Enemalta – have been roped into the process at this early stage.

The minister was unable to answer that but said the standard procedure was for such submissions to be made as part of the PA application process.