A meeting between the Malta Developers’ Association and the Prime Minister led to a new idea aimed at discouraging developers from building in the remaining unspoilt urban areas. MDA head Sandro Chetcuti said: “Our towns and villages are disappearing and this is something we want to act against.”
The MDA claims that the possibility of trading airspace near “quaint town and village cores” in return for further development rights – “better deals on construction projects” – in other localities would save Malta’s remaining unspoilt urban and landscape heritage.
Supporting the concept, Stephen Farrugia, a former director at the Malta Environment and Planning Authority and former president of the Malta Chamber of Architects and Civil Engineers, said the issue of “stock trading” was based on a system used overseas to protect iconic urban areas from unwanted construction.
In a nutshell, the MDA’s proposal envisages that the airspace of a property near a village core purchased by a developer who did not build the five storeys currently permitted under planning law on that plot of land would, instead, be allowed to transfer that potential to another project in a more built-up neighbourhood.
It is said the Prime Minister appeared attracted to this “innovative solution” and “was not averse to the idea”. But he wisely added it would have to be studied and carefully thought through.
And so it should. One must, of course, beware snake oil salesmen. This especially in view of how rules and regulations have been bended and twisted to serve greedy developers.
Din l-Art Ħelwa was quick off the mark in opposing the proposal, which it deemed as completely negating the basic concept of planning regulation. It rightly insisted that planning laws and policies are there to safeguard the interests of the community. “Developers,” it warned, “cannot be allowed to trade rights and reassign floor space from one area to another. The protection of village cores cannot be ‘traded’ [in return] for the disregard of planning policies elsewhere”.
The Malta Chamber of Planners also harbours doubts, warning it “may smell of a Trojan Horse” (see Talking Point on back page).
Examples of over-development and land abuse, progressive deterioration of conservation areas and village cores and creeping urbanisation of Malta and Gozo have been abundant in the past decade. Can one be blamed for wondering how could developers suddenly decide to stop building multiple-storey apartment blocks in old village cores as a trade-off for permission to increase construction in other parts of our islands. Could this be another stratagem to continue degrading every aspect of the historic environment?
If there is to be a fundamental rebalancing of priorities for a better Maltese quality of life, ‘stock trading’ is definitely not the answer. Facilitating construction by encouraging building in locations or on a scale not permitted at present with the ostensible objective of protecting urban conservation areas in “quaint” village cores is a false and misleading proposition.
What the MDA should do to protect the historic urban environment is emulate what Din l-Art Ħelwa and other heritage NGOs have been doing and press for the strengthening of detailed local plans across the Maltese islands. Without this, the rapid rate of construction development will carry on apace in an uncontrolled manner leaving in its wake an ugly and overbuilt concrete jungle.
This is a Times of Malta print editorial