No permits for 26 planned boathouses in Mellieħa

Property magnate Albert Mizzi has been denied permission to build 26 boathouses at the base of Mellieħa's Santa Maria Estate in a zone that falls outside the building scheme.

The proposed boathouses would have been located 13.4 metres above sea level and have a total footprint of 1,301 square metres.

Mr Mizzi asked for a permit to build 13 boathouses beneath existing ones in the area known as Tas-Sellum and 13 others further along the bay. Both areas, however, are in an outside-development zone. The request was turned down last week in a hearing of the Development Control Commission board because it conflicts with the local plan, which places the site within a protected coastal area.

Although there are other boathouses along the same stretch of coastline, recent planning policies aim to conserve and protect the coast from further degradation by prohibiting the construction of new boathouses.

Mr Mizzi, the chairman of Midi Consortium that is building the Tigné Point complex, used to own the best part of Santa Maria Estate, which was mostly sold as plots for villas in the 1980s.