Mepa postpones long-awaited ruling on Balzan project

The long-awaited decision on 15 apartments encroaching a villa neighbourhood in Balzan was postponed by two weeks yesterday to clarify whether a buffer zone was required.

Residents were frustrated that this matter should be prolonged further because they have been calling on the Malta Environment and Planning Authority to amend an error in the local plan, which converted an area reserved for villas into one for terraced houses.

They have been contesting this development since 2005 and last year 28 families filed a judicial protest asking Mepa to correct the mistake.

The Mepa board yesterday discussed the application for 15 apartments and garages, set in two blocks in St Francis Street, corner with St Gabriel Street. The decision was postponed after the case officer could not fully explain whether a buffer zone was required in the local plan.

Before the hearing, Mepa chairman Austin Walker explained that the application was refused by the Development Control Commission board but there was a request for it to be considered again.

Addressing about 100 residents attending the hearing, Mr Walker said he had personally requested the case to be heard before the Mepa board, especially when he saw its history.

When the local plan was set in 2006 the area was rezoned, allowing the construction of terraced houses, including apartments. The height limitation was set at two storeys.

The DCC had refused the application because it did not include the three-metre gap between the villas and the proposed houses and not because it went against the local plan, the case officer said.

In 2007, a new application was filed and included the required three-metre gap, which then led the Planning Directorate to recommend the project for approval. However, the Mepa auditor had pointed out in a report that the decision to amend the zoning areas was not "appropriate".

Mr Walker explained that the planning authority had already started the process of amending the local plans. "It has started but it takes time".

Several residents voiced their concern that, if approved, the development would reduce the value of their property and generate more traffic. "I want to continue living in the same quiet area I have been living in for the past years," one resident said.

They also pointed out that rezoning was Mepa's mistake when setting the local plans, so they should not be the ones to pay for it. Project architect Edwin Mintoff said similar "mistakes" had been made all over Balzan. Objections, he added, could have been made as far back as 2002 during the consultation period over the draft local plan.