Last month’s decision by the Planning Authority to categorically rebut the application to rezone just shy of 8,000 square metres of ODZ land on the outskirts of Għarb has drawn many a plaudit and with sacrosanct reason. Had such an application been endorsed, the goalposts would effectively have been moved, with the development boundary being foisted further north onto fields that currently fall within the confines of ODZ areas.
The approval of such an application would have effectively been tantamount to an extension of development boundaries, albeit without the usual outcry that normally accompanies such an announcement, even though the same application was met with over 1,000 objections. But there is little time to rejoice, given that the onslaught on Gozo’s ODZ areas is unremitting.
As if the 160-odd apartments being developed on 30,000 square metres in Qala by property magnate, albeit part-time farmer, Joseph Portelli were not enough, news emerged of this further dabbling in the development of Gozitan ODZ areas, this time in Sannat and by resorting to an odious practice known as ‘salami-slicing’.
As rightly noted by Graffitti, rather than submitting one integrated planning application for the development of the whole cohort of proposed apartments – 125 – Portelli, along with two other applicants, spread the proposals in a piecemeal fashion over three different applications to avoid attracting the type of attention (that is, a request for an environment impact assessment) that the largest projects normally get.
The first planning application, for the first plank (22) of the whole cohort of flats, was approved last October, despite a flurry of objections and also the case officer’s recommendation to the contrary.
And the salami-slicing aspect is not the only one to defy proper planning procedure. The case officer has flagged the latest two proposals for breaching height limitations for the area as stipulated by prevailing planning policies.
The pending applications refer to a site which lies just 300 metres from the Ta’ Ċenċ cliffs, one of Gozo’s most iconic and evocative natural assets. The irony of it all is that Portelli, registered as a part-time farmer, is having a field day replacing ODZ fields with hundreds of flats in Gozo. No wonder agricultural land has declined by 6.2 per cent over the course of the last 10 years.
But flats and apartments are not the only bane plaguing Gozo’s ODZ areas. Animal husbandry might be declining in Malta (with a steep reduction in the number of pigs, broilers and cattle) but the sector seems to be proliferating in Gozo, at least on paper, if we are to judge by the bonanza of planning applications being submitted for new sheep and poultry farms.
The tranquil setting of Għasri has attracted disproportionate attention in recent months, with a flurry of planning applications being submitted
The tranquil setting of the quaint village of Għasri, for instance, has attracted disproportionate attention in recent months, with a flurry of such planning applications being submitted.
One such application is PA 08720/21, which is proposing the construction of a poultry farm with ancillary facilities within an ODZ area straddling Għasri and Żebbuġ, which is also classified as an area of high landscape value and one of agricultural value, given that the earmarked site lies within terraced fields which are not directly accessible by heavy machinery.
As a result, the development of such a site is naturally constrained by a diverse array of planning regulations, not least by specific policies within the SPED (Strategic Plan for the Environment and Development), the Gozo and Comino local plan and the odious 2014 ODZ policies (the RPDG) themselves. Citing verbatim from the latter, “Proposals which would have an adverse impact on important landscape features, including their integrity or character, will not be permitted”.
The same RPDG policies rightfully state that the priority should be the conversion of abandoned or dilapidated livestock farm buildings, a ruse which has often been resorted to by applicants, Portelli included, but which definitely does not apply in this case given that the site in question consists exclusively of rolling farmland, without an iota of a construction in sight.
The untouched and elevated nature of the site in question are such that any intervention will exert a considerable visual impact on the unspoilt landscape character of the site, as revealed by the cringe-inducing photomontages included within the planning application.
The siting of the proposed poultry farm is also objectionable for another legitimate reason: its proximity (a distance of roughly 100 metres) from one of the few natural springs in the area, which might potentially be contaminated as a result of the proposed works.
In addition, a detail which is not to be understated is the fact that the applicant is not registered as a farmer according to farming registers, raising the spectre of ulterior motives behind the same plans.
The Għasri local council has rightly objected to this insidious planning application, as it did for three other applications referring to the development of two sheep farms and a poultry one, as well as a farmers’ residence within Wied is-Seqer. Interesting times indeed for Gozo’s ODZ areas.