Flimkien għal Ambjent Aħjar (FAA) welcomes the appointment of a new MEPA Chairman and augurs that the speedy implementation of MEPA reform will enable the new Chairman to ensure a level playing field for both developers and residents, consistency in decisions and sustainable planning for Malta’s future needs.   

FAA fails to understand how a decision as important as the Mistra high-rise development could have been taken just prior to the takeover of the new Chairman, and to the imminent MEPA reform.  The decision to allow the building of high-rise blocks on the Mistra ridge violates not only the Local Plan, but also the Floor Area Ratio (FAR) eight-floor limit for the area as well as the regulation which stipulates that “Settlements on elevated ground and on ridges are inappropriate locations for tall buildings, as tall buildings in these locations would be more pronounced, would have a deleterious impact on the skyline on a national scale and would dominate the whole landscape when viewed from low lying ground;”(FAR Policy, 7.Locating Tall Buildings) 

The approval ignored the advice of MEPA’s Heritage Advisory Committee as it also places at risk the area’s heritage which includes archaeological sites and the unique and endangered Underground Flour Mill.  The MEPA Board took the decision without being shown the latest plans’ impact on the landscape in photomontages, the most important aspect of the project. On the grounds of these violations, FAA questions not only the wisdom, but even the legality of the MEPA board’s decision to allow a further 868 apartments in an area which already has over 1,000 vacant housing units.  Furthermore, the Halcrow and TEN-T transport report already state that the Xemxija bypass cannot cope with present traffic demands, let alone the increased traffic that this development will create.  The building of a Pwales bypass which has already been investigated and dropped in the past, would be equally unsustainable, given the encroachment of agricultural land, the threat to the aquifer as well as to the Ghadira bird sanctuary and Area of Special Conservation which includes marshland and sand dunes. 

MEPA’s argument that a traditional development of the site would have created more units is an insult to the intelligence of the Maltese public.  Malta cannot afford to continue ignoring basic planning parameters such as population densities, supply of vacant housing, EU Energy Efficiency Directives and the state of transport facilities in favour of short-sighted, fast-buck decisions.   

Our country boasts of having been in the forefront of highlighting environmental issues twenty years ago and now approves permits which violate the principles of the Sustainability Strategy for the Maltese Islands which was recently ratified by Parliament.  This not only threatens the health and quality of life of its residents, but also the livelihood of tourism employees, which stands to be affected when the impact of what have been described as “massive and ugly developments” on our landscapes begins to be felt.  The news that thirteen tall buildings have been applied for all over Malta at a time when even top planning officials are expressing serious doubts as to the wisdom of such structures in the Maltese context, makes a re-assessment of the Mistra decision and the whole tall buildings policy a national priority.

FAA
19th June 2008