The greed of development

Selfishness, greed and insensitivity in planning development are what irk Simone Mizzi, Din L-Art Ħelwa’s newly appointed executive president. She tells Ariadne Massa the country is paying the price for the cementification and uglification of the past two decades.

Driving towards Din L-Art Ħelwa’s offices in Valletta, past the Phoenicia Hotel, Ms Mizzi cringes at the “angry” buildings that mar her view across the sea.

She points to the Tigné Point project backed by the Fortina Hotel tower and the Fort Cambridge development, coupled with the imminent Townsquare project and the “concrete beehive” of Sliema and St Julian’s, all jostling for the best views and location by the sea.

“It’s an aberration. Is this what we have managed to create? Are we proud of this? These are developments which are good investments because they have used up the best views and the best open spaces, but they have come to ruin the very views they have been built to use,” she says, shaking her head.

“These are buildings built for the people inside, not those on the outside.”

Former DLĦ president Martin Scicluna first decried the uglification of the island in the early 2000s, but Ms Mizzi now whisks cementification into the mix that is threatening to rule the island.

“Every time we develop there is a compromise and inevitably the environment loses,” she says, adding that since Malta is such a small island it is impossible not to constantly come face to face with ugly buildings every day.

Having been at the helm of this NGO, founded in 1965 by her father Judge Maurice Caruana Curran, for three months, Ms Mizzi refuses to be disheartened that – despite harping on the same things for years – indiscriminate development has continued along shorelines and on ridges.

Somehow she summons the strength to follow in her predecessors’ footsteps and persist in ramming the message home because she genuinely believes there is still a big percentage of the island left to save.

For her, taking on this position has been a natural progression seeing that she has spent all her life working in the realm of natural conservation and environment.

One of the goals she hopes to achieve is persuading authorities to bring back the aesthetics board that was dismantled in the 1970s and she believes there has been no desire from the government’s side to have it replaced.

In the past, this board ensured that any planning applications conformed to a context and that buildings actually had a purpose.

She believes the aesthetics board should form part of Mepa and be made up of a group of experts – architects, planners and environmentalists.

The board should focus on trying to find a style for Malta that will take the island through to the next generation. Whenever she asked the authorities about this the reply was always evasive and she was told nobody wanted to impose a style on people.

“I’m not saying impose a style but let’s impose parameters for a style that is truly ours,” she says.

“You can’t just build because you’re speculating; that’s just greed. Is it sustainable?” Ms Mizzi asks pointing to the rows and rows of empty apartment blocks unsold and unoccupied.

“Everywhere you go you see the little green paper of Mepa applications for four apartments with underlying garages and penthouse – this has to stop.

“Overnight, whole villages have disappeared, and you have these ugly buildings... Have we become so aesthetically jaded that we look at our surroundings with hooded eyes?

“We cannot just rely on having our beautiful gems like the Hypogeum, St John’s Co-Cathedral or the temples... It’s like having a beautiful diamond in an ugly mount. I feel very strongly about this because I believe we’re still in time to save so much.”

When she is referred to the developers’ association’s recent lament that the government should step in and help alleviate the prolonged crisis of the property industry, Ms Mizzi fails to be moved.

“An economy that is dependent on the construction trade is a weak one. We have to find better investment opportunities and more sustainable ones.”

While acknowledging that building is programmed into the island’s DNA, Ms Mizzi believes it is important for developers to learn to diversify, stop building rabbit warrens and change their direction towards increased restoration and making use of existing buildings.

Asked if she views the planning authority as a friend or foe, Ms Mizzi is momentarily silent then concedes that it works both ways. Having said that, she commends the improvements made recently for increased dialogue with environmentalists; she feels their voice is being heard.

Yet on the flip side, Mepa recently started requesting bank guarantees of €10,000 for a simple restoration job even from NGOs like DLĦ, when, for example, normal restoration works on Torri Mamo cost around €5,000 to carry out, which is “absurd” and creates havoc with its limited funds.

The drama is that DLĦ may have four or five projects like this going on at the same time so it is in discussions with the authorities to see how this can be redressed.

DLĦ spends €50,000 alone a year on recurrent costs such as rent, water and electricity, phone lines, insurances and part-time staff and handymen. Another €120,000 goes on restoration annually but both sums exclude the hours put in by volunteers. All the money is raised by the organisation with no assistance from government.

A campaign that Ms Mizzi has made her personal challenge is saving the Church of Our Lady of Victories in Valletta, which she considers to be “an important jewel” but has been forlornly abandoned.

“Leaving this historic jewel in this state with all the restoration that is going on between the city’s new entrance and Castille is unconceivable,” she says, insisting that the precious vault paintings of Alessio Erardi are in urgent need of tender loving care.

The church’s facade was restored years ago by the Valletta Rehabilitation Project and DLĦ with sponsorship from businesses, but the NGO faced resistance being entrusted with the interior’s conservation, a sensitive project since it is one of numerous churches left by the knights, inherited by the state and used by the Church.

“We hope we’ve resolved it. I’m concerned it’s taking too long to start and we have a line-up of high profile sponsors waiting to do it. The church is a treasure trove full of artefacts,” she says, her eyes lighting up with passion every time she touches on a project.

Ms Mizzi, director of The Body Shop in Malta, is keen to keep her passion and work ethic alive in her business, voluntary work and family life.

In 2006 she had bared her soul in Pink magazine about coping with chemotherapy after developing breast cancer. She has passed the five-year mark and at 62 shows no signs of slowing down. How does she do it?

“I think I’m very lucky. I’m sure I inherited the energy from my father. You don’t have much choice but to carry on. You hope for the best. I’m lucky to have had five years,” she says.

“You have your regular check-ups, of course, and worry and go to pieces every time. And hopefully they tell you it is OK and you carry on. Courage is your only choice.”

The battle against cancer has taught her to make sure she lives her life “totally usefully” and enjoy what she is doing. When she looks in the mirror every day and sees the scars, it pushes her to face the day and pass on the fabric of her being to others.

“You just hope to live your life usefully and leave an impression on your family, friends and your country. In the end that’s what you have to leave behind.”