A court last week overturned a “legally flawed” decision to grant Electrogas power station businessman Mark Gasan permission to build a 200sqm one-storey villa in an outside development zone falling within Wied il-Ħesri, Żebbuġ.
The businessman’s attempts to develop what was once an illegal chicken farm have been twice thwarted by the Planning Authority, only for the decisions to be overturned by the Environment and Planning Review Tribunal (EPRT).
Mr Justice Mark Chetcuti found that the tribunal’s latest decision in December continued to give weight to a 2007 outline permit to build a 120sqm villa, while selectively applying a provision in the 2014 rural policy and design guidance allowing the businessman to extend this development to 200sqm.
In the court ruling, the judge upheld arguments by a third-party objector stating that the tribunal could not simply cherry-pick parts of the rural policy that favoured Mr Gasan.
The application had to be decided exclusively on all provisions contained in the policy, the court said.
Tribunal could not simply cherry pick rural policy
Mr Gasan’s permit had been rejected by the Planning Authority for not being in conformity with this policy.
The court ordered a revocation of the tribunal’s decision, and ordered the same tribunal to decide on Mr Gasan’s application solely on the basis of the 2014 policy.
A previous refusal by the Planning Authority was overturned by the EPRT in October 2013 on the grounds that demolition of the illegal farm should be considered a planning gain as the illegal farm was causing an “adverse visual impact”.
Prior to the December decision by the tribunal, Mr Gasan filed an application for full development of the site in 2015 but the Planning Authority rejected it.
It concluded that the application for two villas, including swimming pools and semi-basement levels for a games room, gyms, offices, stores and parking areas, went far beyond the one-floor unit envisioned in the outline permit and would breach numerous policies.
According to the case officer’s report on the application, the Environment Protection Directorate expressed concerns that the villas would “obliterate” existing rural features and intensify urban use within the countryside.
The directorate had also expressed concerns about possible further future pressure for any other ancillary interventions and further similar developments in the countryside that would lead to a cumulative change in the appearance of the locality.
The case officer’s report said the development as proposed would lead to adverse visual impacts on the surroundings and ran counter to the strategy for the protection of rural areas.