Following an appeal made in this column last month for the relocation of the proposed new Marsaxlokk local council facilities within the car park contiguous to the locality’s football ground, I was rebuked for suggesting that such an ‘ODZ space’ (the car park) should be developed, even if it meant sparing the mature school garden.
I was briefly heartened by such a reprimand originating from the Marsaxlokk local council, as I did not anticipate such a stance promoting the safeguard of ODZ sites.
My buoyant mood was, however, short-lived given that, a few weeks down the link, news emerged of a planning application submitted by the same Marsaxlokk football club proposing the development of the same car park and the contiguous Port Ruman public garden into a complex of facilities, including an elderly people’s home, a hostel, gym and other commercial premises to be availed off by the same football club.
Once such news emerged, I wanted to kick myself for being so naïve and gullible, given that previously disparate jigsaw puzzle pieces started suddenly falling into place.
It suddenly dawned upon me why the ODZ car park was too sacred a ground to consider as a feasible alternative to the school’s mature garden for the relocation of the local council facilities.
It became obvious that the real motive behind the local council’s staunch refusal to consider the car park as an alternative lay in its real estate development potential.
It was deeply ironic, to use a euphemism, that the same ODZ car park was deemed too sacred to house local council facilities but not to house a fully-fledged complex being peddled by the locality’s football club. Seems that goalposts shift rapidly on these islands and that the status of a parcel of land could alternately be over-emphasised or downplayed, depending on the needs of convenience.
A top post-election priority
The latest ODZ permit acceded to by property tycoon Joseph Portelli, who is concomitantly registered as a farmer, for the construction of an agricultural store in the Ġebel l-Aħmar area of Nadur, drew the limelight on the many flaws and shortcomings of the operational ODZ policies. Portelli, in fact, through his architect, was quick to latch on to ‘ancient’ aerial photos of the area, dating back to 1967, which indicate the occurrence of a store on site and this evidence can be considered as a trump card, greenlighting the redevelopment of the same agricultural store courtesy of our lax ODZ policies.
Time will tell if the Planning Authority has any real urge to stall the ongoing onslaught on ODZ swathes in Gozo- Alan Deidun
In fact, ever since the infamous ushering in of the Rural Policy and Design Guidelines (RPDG) in 2014, this column has been vociferous in its criticism of the permissive nature of the same guidelines, which are commonly referred to as the ‘ODZ policies’.
In a triad of successive columns, published in The Sunday Times during November 2013, I underscored the various loopholes the same guidelines presented which would result in a proliferation of ODZ development under the guise of agricultural infrastructure.
The same guidelines have been conceived as a way of supporting local farmers who should not be expected to face one ordeal after another simply to rehabilitate their agricultural facilities. While fully recognising the need to buttress local genuine farmers, this column had rightly anticipated that the provisions of the RPDG were such that the floodgates of ODZ development would be opened for those posing as farmers when, in fact, their connection to farming is tenuous at best, Portelli included.
I concede that the long-overdue overhaul of such permissive ODZ policies has probably been pencilled in for the post-election period given that no party, PN included (the PN has limited its attention to large-scale ODZ development only), would root for the introduction of more stringent and prescriptive environmental legislation on the eve of an election.
Political considerations aside, the review of the same odious policies should top the list of priorities for the Environment Ministry following the next election, coupled with a revision of the SPED (Strategic Plan for the Environment and Development), which expired in 2020.
The time frame of the revamped SPED should be more ambitious in that a five-year expiry date, as was the case for the first run of the SPED, is definitely too restrictive: environmental and planning targets should definitely look beyond five-year terms.
An expansion into further ODZ at Għarb
As rightly underscored by the Graffiitti movement, it is anomalous that a planning application (PC/00038/20), referring to the proposed rezoning of over 5,000 square metres of ODZ land as well as the opening of a new road, on the outskirts of Għarb, in Gozo has resurfaced, following news last month that the Planning Authority has stalled its processing.
It is worth noting that, if this application is endorsed, the perimeter of the developable area at Għarb would encroach further into farmland, with the area in question currently only being accessible through a countryside passage, and that the case officer in question is recommending the refusal of such an application.
This application is scheduled to be decided upon on Tuesday.
Time will tell if the Planning Authority has any real urge to stall the ongoing onslaught on ODZ swathes in Gozo.