Rationalisation benefits ODZ villas

For a handful of villa owners at Naxxar the government rationalisation plan to alter development boundaries is turning out to be a happy ending to a dream come true.

Proposed extensions to the building scheme being passed through Parliament are set to mop up a number of properties built outside the development zone (ODZ) where permits were refused by a pre-MEPA permitting board.

Parliamentary approval is just around the corner for the raking back of building boundaries set 18 years ago. As planning controls came into effect to seal urban settlements, there was an unsuccessful scramble for permits at the archaeologically important Tal-Wej area.

One of three properties set to benefit from current boundary extensions being passed through Parliament is a semi-detached villa on the wrong side of the building boundary, ironically named "Widnet il-Bahar" after an endemic native plant. Another ODZ villa is named "Il-Holma".

Old planning records in storage at MEPA show that permit applications to the Planning Area Permits Board (PAPB) in 1988 for the development of two sites were refused. In the same year development boundaries were closed by means of the Temporary Provisions Scheme.

A full five years went by before the Planning Authority came of age and took over the functions of the PAPB. In 2002, the authority absorbed the Environment Protection Department to form the Malta Environment and Planning Authority. The two departments never really merged and have often been at loggerheads, with the stronger dominating the weaker.

MEPA public relations officer Sylvana Debono has responded promptly to a request from The Sunday Times for the status of the Tal-Wej applications, details of which are not available on MEPA's electronic database. It appears that although the two applications to build at Tal-Wej were turned down the construction of the two semi-detached villas went ahead. If pre-1980 permits for the villas were issued these would be held at the old planning office at the Works Division in Belt is-Sebh.

In 1993 a MEPA permit was granted for a third villa at Tal-Wej. The villa, which bears the name of a protected tree, was issued with a stop notice by a fledgling MEPA enforcement officer over a breach consisting of excavation outside the development zone.

Yet the case officer's report reveals that although this was an ODZ site it was treated in the permit application as an infill gap adjacent to an existing villa. No reference was made to the status of the existing villa which served as an excuse to justify further building in this sensitive green area.

The permitted ODZ villa, named "Il-Harruba" (The Carob), is one of three properties now set to jump over the shifting boundary line at Naxxar Site C by Parliamentary decree. An expanded rationalisation exercise followed public consultation submissions to usher the villas into the building scheme. A second query to MEPA on whether the boundary extension being passed through Parliament will waive the need for sanctioning of any illegal properties and brush aside any fees due has met with some uncertainty. A reply is still pending although it seems unlikely that MEPA would allow this. Sanctioning has continued unabated despite a pledge to phase out this practice by the Environment Minister who oversees MEPA. To date, property developers served with an enforcement notice on illegal developments are enticed by the system to meet a maximum penalty of Lm1,000 and obtain a sanctioned enforcement permit.