Court revokes original permit for Villa Rosa

The law courts presided by Chief Justice Mark Chetcuti has revoked a permit issued by the Planning Authority for the development of the Villa Rosa site.

The court decision specifically annuls the PA’s renewal of a permit originally issued in in 2023. Since the original permit has now expired and its renewal has been revoked, there is presently no permit for any development on the site.

Set on different locations around St George’s Bay over a 48,723sq.m site, the permit foresaw the demolition of Moynihan House and Dolphin House, two historic British-era buildings to make way for commercial space for restaurants, offices and a language school. The two buildings have already been demolished. 

It also included a 56-room 4-star hotel over four floors below road level at Cresta Quay while the area adjacent to the Bay Street complex was to be developed in to a boutique hotel commercial, offices and apartments, at a six-storey height and overlying penthouse.

The valley watercourse area was earmarked for 15 two-storey villas with private pools.

After securing the renewal of the original application Camilleri presented a new application to increase floor space from the 141,000sq.m approved in 2018 to 237,000sq.m by opting for a high-rise development including two towers of 35 and 27 storeys each. The Height Limitation Adjustment policy for hotels, which permits hotels to rise above local plan limits, is invoked. 

READ ALSO: Villa Rosa: When local plans are not cast in stone

The Planning Authority is currently revising the local plan to enable Camilleri to apply the hotel heights policy to the site on which development is presently regulated by the local plan which precludes high rise development on the site. Camilleri also claims that he intends to change the design of the project on the basis of the new policy.

Why the permit was revoked

Residents from the area had presented an appeal to the law court against the PA’s failure to revoke the renewal permit issued in 2023 because no site notice was attached on the Cresta Quary site to inform them about the pending application. 

Moreover, the application’s site address was listed as: “Villa Rosa, Ix-Xatt Ta' San Gorg, San Giljan” even if the development stretched all the way through Cresta Quay to the other side of St. George’s Bay. In fact, the planning directorate itself had recommended the revocation of the permit but was over ruled by the PA board.

Implications of court decision

Effectively the decision means that Camilleri now has no fall back to develop the site if his current plans for a high-rise development are not approved.  

Moreover, Moynihan house was not included in the local plan policy regulating development in the area but is now included in the site covered by the new policy being drafted, presumably because Camilleri already had a permit on this part of the site.

In an article penned in October, Camilleri had emphasised the site is already covered by a permit which can already “be executed”. “However, we chose to amend those plans partly because of the way the surrounding area had developed, and the need for high-quality tourism in Malta.”