Moviment Graffitti has flagged a 125-apartment development in Sannat as an example of what it says is "deceitful scheming" by developers intended to bypass Planning Authority rules.
The NGO said the application (PA/02087/21), which is due to be adjudicated by the PA on February 8, is the "final stage of a monstrous project" led by Gozitan construction trio Joseph Portelli, Mark Agius and Daniel Refalo.
The huge apartment block will rise just a few hundred metres away from the scenic and ecologically important Ta’ Ċenċ cliffs, and very close to a Natura 2000 site, a Special Area of Conservation and a Special Protected Area.
Applicants split the project into multiple applications, they noted, starting in 2020 with an initial application to build 22 apartments, 15 garages and a pool.
That first application was recommended for refusal by the PA case officer, who noted several planning policy infringements and said the plans would involve the unwarranted take-up of ODZ land.
But despite that advice, the application was given the green light by planners.
In the meantime, the same applicants submitted two other applications for two large blocks adjacent to the site of the first application.
In all, the blocks total to 125 flats – making the project one of the largest residential projects ever to take place on Gozitan soil.
This latest application is also being recommended for refusal by the application's case officer, because the development exceeds the height limit permitted by planning policies.
Graffitti fears the PA will, once again, override that recommendation and find a reason to allow the project to go ahead.
'Malicious intent' - Graffitti
“It is unmistakably clear that the developers split the project up into three separate applications, using different applicant names, with a malicious intent to evade a much more rigorous process of scrutiny,” Graffitti said.
It said that such “salami-slicing” of one project into different applications is illegal and should be reasonable grounds for the PA to automatically refuse the applications.
Similar abusive tactics had led to the green-lighting of “a ghastly series of apartment blocks” covering a large swathe of land in Ta’ Kassja, Qala, it said.
In that case, a 160-apartment mega-development took up an area totalling 30,000 square metres; but the project was never examined holistically in its entirety, nor was its wide-ranging impact on the environment and the local community ever taken into consideration.
Although both projects in Sannat and Qala were appealed on the basis of the various illegalities surrounding them, the requests for suspension of works to allow time for the appeal to be heard were refused by the Environment and Planning Review Tribunal.
So if the appellants ever win these cases and the permits are revoked, the works on these projects will be completed – meaning that the damage would be irrevocable at this stage and there would be no going back, Graffitti said.
It noted that, for some reason, the Environment Minister, Aaron Farrugia, “remains conspicuously absent and indifferent” in the face of such blatant abuses, which have become synonymous with development in Malta and Gozo.
“The authorities must be allowed to do their work – that is, uphold and enforce the laws in place – and not be steered by the developers’ interests,” Graffitti said.