Proposals being made by the ‘Efficient Planning System’ consultation document effectively dismantle all the checks and protective regulations that have been built into the planning system over the last years, environment NGO Flimkien għal Ambjent Aħjar said.
It said in a statement this morning that reversing the ‘no sanctioning in ODZ’ regulation meant that the countryside and scheduled areas such as areas of ecological and scientific importance would once again be exposed to illegal building, since it would now be possible to regularise such abuse. This provision would invariably encourage ‘build first, sanction later’ construction abuse.
Similarly, one of the few effective deterrents to abusive development, the provision that properties subject to enforcement notices could not be legally transferred, was to be dropped.
FAA said the protection of architectural heritage was undermined by the proposal that it would no longer be possible to schedule buildings once a development permit was issued.
Furthermore the right to reconsider scheduling after 10 years meant that no heritage building would ever be safe.
Instead of assisting owners to maintain heritage buildings, this provision encouraged the neglect of such buildings to later claim that they no longer have any heritage value and can be de-scheduled. Therefore hundreds of heritage buildings that were not yet scheduled or that would be de-scheduled could be destroyed, FAA said.
It said that having a member from an eNGO and from the Environment Authority on the Mepa Planning Board that decided on applications was hollow tokenism as was the situation presently.
Applications that dealt with the environment and sustainability should be decided by a balanced board, not one appointed by politicians and dominated by those from the development field, it insisted.
It noted that the Environment and Resources Authority was not represented on the Mepa Executive Council which was to determine policy.
FAA said that the integration of the Sanitary Regulations Board under the roof of Mepa could effectively gag what had, until now, been a very scrupulous watchdog.
The re-introduction of the outline permit process re-opened the door to abuse and grey areas, the very reason that outline permits were scrapped.
The new law also did not exclude abusive additional floors.
Mepa was also retaining the power to overrule any recommendation on the part of all internal and external consultees – including the Sanitary Board - provided that all decisions were adequately motivated and grounded on sound planning arguments - a provision that was violated countless times in the past.
FAA said that contrary to what Parliamentary Secretary Michael Farrugia was claiming, the changes did not bring Malta in line with global developments but flew in the face of EU efforts to ensure economic development and quality of life through sustainability.
“Most worryingly, the provision that the minister can make regulations to regularise development ominously takes us back 30 years,” FAA said.