Changes to the zoning for Magħtab would limit industrial and commercial activity – except for animal husbandry, a Planning Authority architect said on Monday.

The parliamentary Environment and Development Planning Committee heard a presentation by PA architect Joe Scalpello on proposed revisions to the Central Malta Local Plan, specifically with reference to the Magħtab area.

The new policy has been under consideration since August 2016, when the Environment Minister asked the Planning Authority to draw up a clear policy for the area, aimed at limiting industrial and commercial activity in the area while preserving the environment and containing urban sprawl. Perit Scalpello said the policy was also intended to encourage animal husbandry in the locality.

A public consultation was carried out during February 2017, but a full Strategic Environmental Assessment will not be required as the objectives of the exercise were environmental in nature, the parliamentary committee was told.

The committee was also updated on a zoning exercise carried out on a portion of land in Mosta, which had been added to the development zone as part of the rationalisation exercise carried out in 2006.

The policy, whose public consultation is open until July, would set the area’s height restriction at 17.5m and would zone 12,300 sqm of land for residential and commercial development, setting aside 3,400 sqm for the development of a public garden, to be financed by a planning gain of €55 per sq.m. of developed land.

The plan was approved by the committee.