Qormi farmland earmarked for industrial expansion

Over 23,000 square metres of Qormi farmland in Tal-Ħandaq has been targeted by three planning applications to build warehouses and workshops.

The development is foreseen in the local plans that were approved in 2006.

The largest application, over 15,500sq.m, was submitted by Malta Developers Association president Michael Stivala.

The others are by Ray Formosa’s Colinrose Ltd and Darren Ciantar’s Ciantar C&F Limited.

Stivala also presented photomontages of the proposed development, including aerial views of the industrial compound. The Planning Authority’s advisory committee on design issues issued its clearance for the development.

The application is proposing the excavation for two levels of basement and a reservoir, and the construction of two full floors and receded floors. While located outside the development zone (ODZ), this land is a designated area of containment, which the PA allows to be used for industrial development that is best located outside residential areas.

The three applications so far cover less than half of the 52,000sq.m of agricultural land earmarked for industrial development in the local plan.

Stivala is not the owner of the entire site but declared being “authorised to carry out such proposed development through an agreement with the owners”.

Stivala and Ciantar’s applications were submitted by architect and former environment minister George Pullicino, under whose purview the 2006 local plans were published. In a public consultation last carried out in 2017, Pullicino had presented submissions on behalf of two landowners of the site – namely Sandro Estates, owned by former MDA president Sandro Chetcuti, and the Tumas Group.

Warehouses are allowed in areas of containment because this industrial activity is deemed incompatible with residential areas. The Ħandaq area is also strategically located close to the Grand Harbour, making it well placed for such land uses.

But one of the problems resulting from such development is extensive soil sealing, which will inevitably block the recharge of the underlying water table. Stivala said in a report to the PA that the rainwater run-off generated on site will be collected in reservoirs for eventual reuse.  The Energy and Water Agency has concluded that the reuse of rainwater is enough to compensate for aquifer recharge losses but

called for measures to avoid spillage and contamination of this water.