Gozitans constitute roughly four to five per cent of the native population of the entire archipelago, some elementary number-crunching reveals (e.g. by excluding the Maltese in possession of a Gozitan identification card and foreigners who have settled on these shores).
Despite this, around 10 per cent (equivalent to 497) of all requests submitted to the then Mepa for the inclusion of current ODZ plots within development boundaries originate from Gozo.
This disproportion might be partly attributed to the prevalence of ODZ areas in Gozo, especially when compared with the combined national ODZ footprint. But the surfeit of ODZ plot inclusion requests from Gozo does not tally with the bonanza of vacant properties on the island or, as is constantly being bandied about in the Malta-Gozo tunnel debate, with the falling Gozitan population.
So what exactly is the motivation behind the renewed resolve being shown by Gozitan applicants to develop ODZ plots on the sister island? It really depends on your neck in the woods.
For instance, the wider Marsalforn area, which encroaches upon the relatively pristine Qbajjar and Xwejni coastal stretches, has been earmarked for a medley of mixed, non-residential uses, ranging from an extension of the Calypso Hotel in Marsalforn and an outdoor recreational area opposite La Grotta discotheque in Xlendi (which is dogged by a number of planning illegalities) to accommodation facilities at Xwejni in relation to diving tourism.
An extension of the Cornucopia Hotel in Xagħra has also been touted and camping aficionados have also been catered for, through a request for the siting of a caravan and camping site in an ODZ area in Xlendi and in Għasri.
Perhaps the most ominous and poker-faced proposals, those for residential development within agricultural land, have been made by the same applicant for large swathes of land in Xlendi and Għasri, for a combined footprint of 15,000 square metres, or 1.5 hectares/full-size football pitches.
The motivation for the Għasri request, endorsed by the local council, is that available land for residential development in that village (with a total population of a couple of thousand souls) is extremely limited, thus greatly hindering the younger generations from acquiring property there.
Such a disparity between pro- and anti-ODZ development proposals in Gozo does not bode well for the environmental credentials of the sister island, which seems enamoured with construction
The same blinkered argument was echoed by the Fontana local council, a locality that lies cheek by jowl with Victoria, where property is available. Were it not for the local council’s endorsement, which renders the request tragic (given that a request by private third parties for development is being endorsed by local government, which in itself is a blatant conflict of interest), the validity of such a motivation could easily be dispelled. Young couples could settle within existing development zones sited at a stone’s throw away from Għasri (e.g. Għarb, Żebbuġ, Xagħra, San Lawrenz, etc.) without much angst.
It seems that construction machinery is here to stay on Calypso’s isle, not even sparing tranquil villages such as Għasri. The large-scale Xlendi ODZ inclusion request is no less brazen than the Għasri one, although it appears innocuous at face value, given that it entails the establishment of planning parameters (e.g. road alignment, building heights) for a substantial slice of land located along the road meandering up to Ta’ Sarraflu.
As aptly underscored by the eNGO Flimkien għal Ambjent Aħjar, the planning procedure resorted to by the applicant is a sleight of hand given that the Planning Commission (PC) application process was used, which is normally the preserve of areas within development zones and which cannot alter the designation of a zone.
PC applications, such as the PC 0112/18 in this case, receive a much lower share of the limelight that do PA applications, so this might be the real motivation for such an apparently anomalous move.
The biscuit probably goes to a site in Marsalforn, along Triq is-Salini, for which the beauty of 18 plots within ODZ are being proposed for the development of two-storey villas.
Perhaps the most sobering aspect of the whole Gozo ODZ debacle is the fact that, countering this watershed of requests to include ODZ parcels within development boundaries, is just a handful of diametrically opposed proposals advocating the conservation of ODZ areas, such as the one calling for the preservation of the Calypso Cave-Ramla l-Ħamra stretch.
Such a disparity between pro- and anti-ODZ development proposals in Gozo does not bode well for the environmental credentials of the sister island, which seems enamoured with construction.
Transport Minister Ian Borg, within whose portfolio the Planning Authority squarely falls, should definitely steer away from sanctioning yet another infamous development boundary extension scheme, since the echoes (both ecological and political) of the previous extension in 2006 still reverberate to this day.
The government is, understandably, not too keen to run the same gauntlet as the PN government way back in 2006 and has, as a result, bandied about a compromise of sorts: wiping off the development register some publicly held land within the confines of current boundaries so as to accede to some of the ODZ change-in-status requests.
Such an offer is no panacea, however, since, although it would entail no net increase in the uptake of ODZ and thus cannot be branded as a boundary extension exercise, it would probably lead to even more recriminations years down the line from aggrieved parties whose request was not acceded to this time round.
The thirst for real estate in Gozo is as unremitting as ever, and the proposed tunnel will simply exacerbate such a thirst by fuelling a spike in property prices.
alan.deidun@gmail.com