Plans to develop an abandoned cow farm in an ODZ Swieqi valley have once again resurfaced - this time in the form of a 131-room agritourism resort rising eight floors high.
Located in Wied Għomor between Swieqi and San Ġwann, the development, proposed by Rodrick Fenech, would include a restaurant, indoor and outdoor pool, spa, fitness area and a multipurpose hall, as well as an underground parking area.
The project, spread over 20,090 square metres of Outside Development Zone land, includes the demolition of rubble walls.
The proposal is currently at the screening stage at the Planning Authority, meaning the public can not yet scrutinise or object to it.
But Swieqi local council has already made its views clear.
In initial reactions to the proposal, it said "this is not an agritourism project but a country hotel and, therefore, does not conform to RPDG policy," the council said. "It is a well-designed project but not one that should be allowed in ODZ."
The Environment and Resources Authority (ERA) is still analysing the application, while the Superintendence for Cultural Heritage said that although the application proposed was in an “ecological buffer zone”, the structures that would be demolished have no cultural value and, therefore, it had no objection in principle to an “adequate redevelopment” of the site.
The SCH has yet to publish its full analysis of the application.
The abandoned cow farm has been the previous target of development applications - most notably for a tourist village and residential units - but those plans never came to fruition.
Noel Muscat said that, as mayor of Swieqi, he had already objected to about three development applications for the area, with proposals ranging from offices to single-room apartments.
Although located in ODZ, the site was already developed, meaning the owner had a right to build on the same footprint, he explained.
“This is about the nature of the project,” Muscat stressed, adding that a farm was one thing, and that an old people’s home would probably be allowed too.
Reacting to the proposal, Astrid Vella from Flimkien Ghal Ambjent Ahjar said there was “very little of an agri-touristic nature about an eight-storey complex, including a fitness centre, spa, multipurpose hall and two storeys of garages”.
The complex's 131 rooms could presumably attract some 300 tourists to this ODZ and hugely increase traffic and toxic emissions within this buffer zone of ecological importance.
“Developers' audacity is going from bad to worse as this is even worse than the previously refused application of 25 bungalows and a swimming pool,” Vella pointed out.
Wied Ghomor is an “essential green lung” between the San Gwann and St Julian’s conurbations, which has been under attack and shrinking for the past 30 years, she continued.
“This supposedly 'agri-touristic' application shows how the Rural Policy has undermined the protection of Malta's dwindling rural areas in encouraging more urban encroachment in ODZ despite the fact that Malta's 37% built-up area is so much higher than the EU average of 7%.”