PN wants House committee hearing on St George’s Bay local plan changes

Opposition MPs have requested that government MPs in the House committee on the environment declare whether they will agree to hold an urgent meeting to summon Gozo and planning minister Cint Camilleri to provide a detailed explanation of the Cabinet’s changes to the local plan for St George’s Bay in St Julian’s.

The request follows information which Nationalist MPs Stanley Bezzina and Rebekah Cilia claims that past rulings by the Speaker are obstructing the committee from discussing this subject.

“Since it is well known that the Committee may convene as long as there is agreement between both sides of the House, government MPs have been asked to declare their position,” the PN said.

Villa Rosa owners welcome public consultation on local plan change, commit to project revisions

“The planning minister should not continue hiding behind the Planning Authority and explain what changes are being proposed to the local plan. At the same time, government MPs on the committee should not exploit flaws in our country’s laws to prevent the much-needed discussion from taking place in the highest institution of our country, Parliament.

“The PN will continue to insist that any proposed changes to the local plans should genuinely protect the environment and the quality of life of residents,” the two MPs said.

But the government has accused the PN of being incorrect about the parliamentary procedure, since the committee is regulated by the Development and Planning Act.

The law itself requires two phases of public consultation and the House committee, which can forge ahead with a position paper, before the PA’s executive council issues its own position to the committee.

The committee then can proceed with its scrutiny of the local plans changes and prepare a report for the House. “The Labour government will never shy away from public consultation,” the government said in an official statement.

Robert Abela persuaded ministers to support a Cabinet proposal to change the Villa Rosa local plan despite several expressing strong misgivings. The Cabinet decision for a partial review of the North Harbour local plan was first leaked to the Times of Malta last week, causing public backlash. The proposed changes will facilitate a high-rise development proposed by Garnet Investments, a company owned by Anton Camilleri known as Tal-Franċiż and his son Adelbert Camilleri. 

In 2018, the Camilleri obtained a planning permit to develop the Villa Rosa site and adjacent properties into a mixed-use development of low-lying buildings. The project never started and in 2022, Camilleri applied for a new permit that included high-rise buildings. 

The latest proposal is still to be decided by the Planning Authority. 

The Environmental Impact Assessment prepared by ERSLI Consultants on behalf of Garnet Investments and published last year refers to local plan policies that limit building heights of hotels to six storeys and an overlying penthouse stepped down to two floors in the area adjacent to St George’s Bay and the Villa Rosa gardens. 

However, the Villa Rosa project is also being proposed under the Height Limitation Adjustment Policy for Hotels, approved in 2014, which permits “standalone hotels” to rise above height limits. In this way, the two towers hosting the 789 serviced apartments will benefit from this policy.