Mark Gaffarena’s plans to build 34 warehouses on ODZ land in Kirkop are back on the table after an appeals tribunal overturned the Planning Authority’s refusal and ordered the application to be reassessed.

Developer Mark Gaffarena.Developer Mark Gaffarena.

The tribunal also cleared one of the major hurdles to the development, ruling that the construction of warehouses in the area was acceptable in principle as long as the buildings themselves did not rise above ground level, while the surface level could be used as parking space.

Mr Gaffarena had applied in 2014 to build the warehouses on two levels on a 2,900 square metre plot in an area known as Tal-Ponta, outside the limits of development and close to the airport runway.

The site was classified as agricultural land until 2012 and lies within a groundwater protection zone and partly on a listed archaeological buffer zone.

The application was refused by the PA board in November 2016, as the use of the land for warehouses was not considered “legitimate or necessary within the rural area” in terms of planning policy, as well as concerns over road safety due to the significant increase in vehicles passing through.

READ: How is your Planning Authority voting?

The proposal had prompted objections from most of the authority’s consultees, with the Environment Protection Directorate warning that it would lead to the “intensification of urban type development in a site designated as a rural conservation area”.

The site’s proximity to the airport made it ideal

Transport Malta objected as the area formed part of a zone abutting the airport, which according to government policy was to be retained for aviation-related development.

Similarly, the Tourism Ministry said approving the application “would send the wrong message to the aviation sector and go counter to government’s stated objectives of making aviation an economic development growth area”.

The Malta Resources Authority had also objected due to the presence of the ‘Dawl’ borehole just 11 metres away.

In the appeal, Mr Gaffarena’s architects argued that the warehousing was an integral part of the logistics sector and that the site’s proximity to the airport made it ideal for the proposed use. They also pointed to the existence of other similar facilities in the immediate vicinity.

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