A potentially expensive mistake

I have been living in my area of Balzan for the past 20 years and for the third time I find myself having to battle with the Malta Environment and Planning Authority to ensure that the character of our neighbourhood, as established by Mepa's own local plans, is retained as a semi-detached villa area.

The part of Triq San Frangisk where I live has since 1966 been zoned as a villa area, that is, building is limited to two floors. However, in the 2002 local plan the one remaining empty plot of land was by mistake zoned as a terraced house area, allowing for three floors and penthouse to be built. On a complaint and subsequent investigation by Mepa's own auditor, the local plans unit admitted that this was a mistake on their part. They inadvertently coloured this plot in a brown shade (terraced house) instead of grey (villa).

Needless to say, a developer has submitted an application (No. 6858/04) to build 15 apartments on this plot. Many objections have been made including by the local council (which has also written to the Prime Minister about this case) and a recommendation to reconsider by the Superintendence of Cultural Heritage, which informed Mepa that underlying part of this land is a large cistern, which has a degree of cultural heritage significance.

At the last meeting of the DCC, which was to decide on this application, the DCC declared that it was not competent to decide and referred the matter to Mepa's executive board. The decision therefore has now been taken out of the scrutiny of the objecting public and will be decided in camera. This is very worrying since should the application be accepted it will have a serious negative effect on the whole neighbourhood. The Mepa auditor has remarked that if this happens the residents of this street will unfortunately suffer the consequences of the mistake. The area will undergo a change of character and we will have increased traffic and parking problems, where these already exist. Also, such a decision will open the door to further multi-storey development, bringing closer the concrete jungle that is already developing around us.

I am still hoping that Mepa would be fair on us neighbours and not let their mistake become an advantage to a developer. I would have thought that the application would be thrown out because of the clear mistake in the local plan. However, Mepa continues to process this application, notwithstanding the report by its own auditor, the admission of error by its own local plans unit, the strong objections by the neighbours, the local council and the Superintendence of Cultural Heritage.