PA set to revoke condition excluding ODZ swimming pools in Qala

The Planning Authority’s executive committee is set to remove a condition that did not permit the development of swimming pools for a Qala apartment block, outside development zones.

A judicial letter by applicant Saviour Micallef is requesting that the PA remove this condition, with the case officer and the authority’s lawyers also agreeing to the change.

When approving residential development on the 424sq.m site, which had been added to the development zones in 2006, the PA stipulated that no form of development would be permitted outside the limit to development boundary.

The permit, signed by the Planning Minister in October 2023, also included this condition meant to avoid any future encroachment on adjacent ODZ land.

In the judicial letter, the applicant described the condition against any future development outside the development boundaries as “totally arbitrary, illegal and ultra vires” and one prejudicing his legal rights and expectations, notwithstanding the development allowable through the Rural Policy and Design Guidelines 2014.

The project’s architect had already objected to the condition at the time the permit was issued, insisting that ODZ swimming pools are already permitted. In fact, the rural policy specifically allows ODZ swimming pools if located within the curtilage of existing developments.

But during the same meeting, the PA’s Executive Chairman Oliver Magro had clarified that whilst the rural policy may permit swimming pools in the ODZ, the Executive Council is in a position to impose any condition which it deems necessary “even if it supersedes that permitted by the relative policy.”

Sins of the rural policy

The rural policy permitting ODZ swimming pools on the site curtilage of existing developments has often been used by other developers to build these pools next to brand new apartment blocks on development borders.

For example, in 2022 the PA had sanctioned the the illegal excavation of two swimming pools in another area in Qala that form part of a 164-apartment block developed by Gozitan developer Joseph Portelli.

Environmentalists have always objected to this and had called on the government to change the rural policy approved in 2014 to stop this practice, which is blurring the distinction between development zones and the ODZ. But the review of this policy started four years ago is still pending.

In its analysis of the case, the PA’ planning directorate and legal office concluded that the condition is partly “erroneous” and constitutes an “error on the face of the record” and is therefore revokable.

A final decision on the proposed revocation of the condition is expected on Tuesday.