Only Malta lost on Xemxija Ridge irrespective of the short term gain for the economy, Din l-Art Helwa executive Simone Mizzi said.
The area previously known as Mistra Village Holiday complex is now set to be developed into a vast urban metropolis.
Nine Mepa board members voted in favour of the massive 744 apartment project and five voted for it to be modified yet again to a more appropriate scheme.
Din l-Art Helwa maintained that the outline permit granted in 2008 followed misleading and incomplete information to the former Mepa board and demanded the revocation of this permit citing the Environment and Planning Act.
The request for revocation of the outline permit was thrown out by chairman Vincent Cassar at the start of the meeting.
Mr Cassar stated that the board had considered the request and found it to be legally unjustified. The chairman said he did not have to make public the considerations that led to this decision.
"It is very concerning that the efforts to protect Malta’s environment, in this case a sizeable chunk of important scenic landscape, should be left to NGOs when the real responsibility of championing the environment should be that of Mepa itself," Ms Mizzi said.
"I am comforted by the fact that there were five members of the board who wished to see the project modified so its effect on the landscape would be mitigated or who insisted that local regulations governing the permit would be observed." She said the board based its decision on an as yet unapproved high rise policy, the floor area ratio, that called for a maximum of eight floors to be allowed, when this permit was in fact granted for 12 "hardly a small departure from the local plan which in essence allows four".
This policy also obliged the Mepa board to ensure that the resulting building was a high calibre quality building but what saw projected were multiple repetitions of boxes accented in red, blue and green that were still massed in a most unnatural adjacency to the surrounding landscape, Ms Mizzi said.
She reiterated that the Mepa board, in the absence of any aesthetics board or style committee, would have to shoulder this responsibility and by approving this scheme of massive blocks accept that it did actually fulfill this requirement.
Another unanswered question, Din l-Art Helwa said, was that of the complete reversal of the traffic impact statement made by Transport Malta’s CEO, described in his letter of August 2013 to the board as being of ‘no objection’ - a complete departure from comments made in 2008 by the authority's experts.
"The major concern now is that with the acceptance of this project the precedent for tall buildings to be built on hills and ridges has been set. Malta does not have much in the way left of unspoilt landscapes and open countryside.
"This design of the former Mistra Village Complex, itself a Din l-Art Helwa award winner several years ago for its use of local materials and traditional style, still could be more sensitive to the landscape.
"Its massive volume will be a permanent unpleasant blot for miles around," Ms Mizzi said.
She added she was happy to hear the Kuwaiti developers said they would consider improving this design yet again. She hoped they would make it kinder to the eye and more in keeping with the natural contours of the land.
"We trust they will be true to their word," she said.