The Planning Authority has asked the developer of an eight-storey hotel in Mellieħa for fresh plans after a court revoked part of the permit of the already-built complex.
A spokesperson for the authority said in replies to questions by Times of Malta that “plans are being presented to the authority by the developer to utilise the building within the parameters established by the court judgment”.
The situation is the result of planning laws which allow developers to go ahead with a permitted development despite pending appeals. The government has said it is planning to change this anomaly.
In May, Chief Justice Mark Chetcuti upheld an appeal by the Mellieħa council against the development of a hotel which had been approved despite having been recommended for refusal for breaching the area’s height limitation policy and running counter to the area’s local plan.
The project, by mega developer Joseph Portelli’s business partner, Mark Agius, on behalf of Shopwise Developments M Limited, includes 121 residential units, shops, an underground parking and garages on a previously vacant 3,600 square metre plot close to Welbees supermarket. The plot abuts Triq Ħalq iċ-Ċawl, Triq l-Iżbark tal-Franċiżi, Triq il-Fortizza and Triq in-Nases.
Plans are being presented to the authority by the developer to utilise the building within the parameters established by the court judgment
The council, which once sought to use the land for community facilities, argued that the project was overly intensive and incompatible with its surroundings.
The fight against this development was spearheaded by Nationalist MP Robert Cutajar.
It had been headed for refusal after a negative recommendation by the PA case officer but the PA board still went ahead and approved the project in March 2019.
The council appealed the permit before the Environment and Planning Review Tribunal which sent the application back to the PA board to reconsider the project with a hotel of not more than 30 rooms.
However, the council appealed this decision again before the Court of Appeal, arguing that a hotel should not be permitted since the area was not earmarked in the local plan as somewhere where a hotel could be developed.
The chief justice ruled in favour of the council, revoking the part of the permit that approved the hotel and confirming the rest of the permit where it allowed a mixed development with retail and residential units.