The Paceville master plan presented to the public should not be approved in its current state, St Julian's local council has said.
In a statement, the council said that it had convened an urgent meeting today and voted to oppose the proposed plan due to multiple, wide-ranging concerns, which ranged from foreshore access to expropriation fears.
The vote was "unanimous", the council said, adding that the Paceville administrative committee attended as observers. PL councillors - who have spoken in glowing terms about the plan - stormed out of the meeting in protest before the vote was taken.
READ: Work done by Paceville plan consultants to be 'reviewed'
In its motion opposing the master plan, the council listed various concerns about the proposals. These included:
- Proposals to expropriate private property and hand it to other private entities. Expropriation was only legal if it was done for public purposes, the council said.
- 15-storey apartment blocks being labelled 'low-rise', when the law clearly set a 10-storey limit on such towers
- The plan did not respect the 15m minimum distance from the foreshore required by law
- Land reclamation plans would clog up bays and damage the area's coastal environment
- Insufficient funding earmarked to upgrade infrastructure in the area
- Concerns about long shadows cast by high-rise towers
- Quality-of-life concerns caused by the several years of construction the master plan envisioned
The council said that both it and Paceville's administrative committee had "serious reservations" about the plan and would be objecting against it being approved in its current state.
The motion was endorsed by mayor Guido Dalli, deputy mayor Albert Buttigieg, and councillors Clayton Luke Mula, Rita Dimech Portelli, Clayton Tanti Gregoracy and Edgar Montanaro.