Plans have been submitted for a new fuel station outside development zones in Żabbar as a pending overhaul of the planning policy for such facilities reaches its final stages.
The outline application by Emanuel Falzon seeks to relocate the Joem Service Station from Regional Road, Tal-Qroqq, to an ODZ site of nearly 2,000 square metres on Triq Villabate, outside Żabbar.
The application was submitted on May 15, a month after the Environment and Resources Authority (ERA) published its proposals for a review of the 2015 Fuel Stations Policy.
Public consultation on the Żabbar proposal will open on Wednesday when the application is formally published by the Planning Authority.
Read: New petrol stations policy will not apply to pending applications - minister
The revised policy, which is expected to rule out new and relocated fuel stations in ODZ areas, will not apply to pending development applications, of which there are currently 12, which will continue to be assessed under the existing, more permissive policy.
Since 2015 the Planning Authority has approved four ODZ fuel stations on a total of 12,000 square metres of agricultural land
The ERA’s proposals for the review would limit ODZ development to the upgrading of existing stations and reduce the maximum size of new stations from 3,000 to 2,000 square metres, as well as increasing the minimum distance between fuel stations to 1.5 kilometres, among other limitations.
The PA formally started the review process in June with a public consultation process, which ended last week.
Nevertheless, while the review was ongoing, the PA approved a controversial ODZ fuel station on 3,000 square metres of land in Luqa, close to the Water Services Corporation headquarters.
The decision had been delayed after Moviment Graffitti activists stormed a hearing in April demanding that the case be suspended until the policy review was completed.
In May, the Planning Authority rejected two other proposals – both ODZ – in Żebbuġ and Iklin, on the basis that they would have been less than 500 metres away from the nearest existing fuel station, the current minimum threshold.
Since 2015 the PA has approved four ODZ fuel stations on a total of 12,000 square metres of agricultural land in Luqa, Burmarrad, Marsascala and Magħtab, the last of which prompted Environment Minister José Herrera to call for the policy review last January.
The 12 applications which remain pending include proposals in Burmarrad, Żejtun, Rabat Road in Attard and several others, which collectively would take up an additional area of more than 52,000 square metres. The pending applications also include one in Żabbar, just 400 metres away from the new proposal on the same road, submitted back in 2011.