Gasan-Tumas plan four tower office blocks in Mriehel

An application by the Tumas and Gasan group to construct four high-rise towers adjacent to the site of the present Gasan head office on the Mriehel bypass.

Mriehel was not included among the localities that will be considered for high-rise buildings of over 10 storeys, when a policy regulating building heights was first issued for public consultation in November 2013.

But Mriehel was added to the list before the policy was approved in June.

EXPLAINER • High-rise towers in Malta

Public, NGOs and stakeholders had no chance to comment on the choice of Mriehel as a site for high-rise office buildings

The Tumas and Gasan Groups are partners in the multinational Electro-Gas consortium, which is set to provide Malta with natural gas for the next 18 years.

The new high-rise development will consist of four towers ranging in height from 14 to 19 storeys and will include four underlying parking levels.

The development will also include offices, retail shops, food and drink outlets, conference facilities, a showroom and educational facilities. An underground supermarket is also being proposed.

6,155 square metres of land are designated as public areas. The total built-up floor space will amount to 43,800 square metres spread over 19 storeys.

Planning Ombudsman David Pace had criticised the government for including Mriehel as a high-rise zone in the approved policy regulating tall buildings.

“The inclusion of Mriehel in the approved zones where the policy is applicable, should have been put to public consultation prior to the final approval by the MEPA board,” the planning ombudsman told MaltaToday in June.

No reference to Mriehel was made in the draft policy document which was issued for public consultation last November.

The approved policy was put on the MEPA website in June and was not even announced by a media release. A news conference was held only after MaltaToday revealed the provisions of the new policy.

This meant that the public, NGOs and stakeholders had no chance to comment on the choice of Mriehel as a site for high-rise office buildings.

It was the government which recommended the addition of Mriehel as a site where buildings which are more than 10 storeys high can be built, along with Qawra, Marsa, Tigné, Paceville and Gzira.

The approved document states that “particular attention was focused on the strategic location of the employment hub of Mriehel”.

The area is presently designated for industrial uses, but in subsequent revisions to the Local Plan a wider mix has been encouraged and a “generic proviso” in favour of buildings higher than 14m was also introduced for large sites.

The document designates Mriehel as an “appropriate location for tall buildings for predominantly office uses”.

The inclusion of Mriehel by stealth was criticised by environmentalists. For Din l-Art Helwa the inclusion of a new area without first presenting it to the public for comments was unacceptable and undermined the whole public consultation process, which MEPA successfully developed over the past decade.

The two leading heritage NGOs, Din l-Art Helwa and Flimkien Ghal Ambjent Ahjar have also called on the government to remove any reference to Mriehel from the approved policy

The two organisations had called for a separate public consultation process to be carried out on whether or not Mriehel should become a location for high-rise buildings.