A Planning Authority scheme that allows property owners to pay to have their building illegalities ignored is to be extended to properties that are partially in Outside Development Zone areas.
The revised scheme, which has now been opened to public consultation, would allow owners of buildings with irregularities that are classified as Category 1 Rural Settlements to apply for regularisation.
Regularisation allows owners to pay a fine to have irregularities given the official green light by the PA, making it much easier for them to then sell the property. Banks generally do not approve mortgages for properties that are irregularly built.
In a statement announcing the draft amendments, the PA said that it was proposing the changes at the government’s request.
The changes will broaden the eligibility of a controversial 2016 regularisation scheme that allowed property owners to have illegalities approved against a payment of a fee.
Originally announced as a restricted two-year plan, the regularisation scheme has been extended with each passing year and remains open to this very day. More than 19,500 applications have been filed since it was launched in August 2016.
While the original scheme was restricted to buildings within development boundaries, the revised one will allow buildings that are partially within ODZ to also be eligible for regularisation.
To be eligible, buildings must have a permit that predates 2016 and the irregular development cannot have a footprint that extends beyond the PA’s 2016 aerial photographs.
Properties that have been subject to a PA enforcement notice predating 2016 will also be eligible for regularisation.
Only non-sanctionable variations from the existing permit shall be considered within the permitted site boundary. Sites where no form of development permission exists, shall not be eligible for regularisation, the PA said.
As with the previous scheme, regularisation will only be approved if there is no injury to amenity and if the building is used for a function in conformity with current planning policies and regulations.
Unlike the previous scheme, the PA has not set any deadline on the new, revised amendments.
In a statement, it said that money raised through the regularisation scheme would go towards funding other authority schemes such as the Irrestawra Darek Grant Scheme, Irrestawra l- faċċata, Irrestawra l-Każin and the Traditional Wooden Balcony Restoration Grant Scheme. Some of the money raised will also be used for urban improvement projects proposed by local councils, or NGOs, through the Development Planning Fund.
The full draft amendments may be viewed on the PA’s website.
The Planning Authority invites the public to submit representations to the proposed amendments regarding the Regularisation of Existing Development Regulations. Submissions are to be sent by email on: regularisation.amendments@pa.org.mt
Submissions must be sent by November 21.