Dominican order withdraws Ghaxaq ODZ application

The Dominican order has withdrawn a controversial application for relocating St Albert’s College and St Theresa Nuzzo schools on 71,723sq.m of ODZ land in Ghaxaq.

The application presented 12 years ago only gained prominence in the media in 2015 after Archbishop Charles Scicluna declared his opposition to the development of an ODZ campus at Zonqor points.

Replying to the Prime Minister’s accusation of double standards, the Archbishop had declared, “if there was another alternative for the school, then precious land should not be sacrificed”.

The application was presented on land allocated for educational facilities in the South Malta Local Plan.

The project which foresaw the relocation of the two schools from Valletta and Marsa to the rural area was already recommended for refusal by the case officer and a public hearing was already scheduled for tomorrow.

But the case officer report itself reveals that the proponents were not actively pursuing the application any further.

In a letter dated 3rd February 2017 the PA had asked the architect to submit pending studies in 30 days.

These pending studies included a Traffic impact statement, a Project Development Statement and details about the electricity supply.

The architect replied that St Albert the Great College was in discussions with the Government regarding its plans to move out of its current premises in Valletta and requested an extension of six months.

Following a six months period, in a letter dated 13th September 2017, the architect was informed that: “since no information was submitted to date and the six months extension period elapsed, the development application will be processed on the basis of the last submission received”.

“Hence, in view that no information or revised drawings were submitted, the proposal is being recommended for refusal”.

The main reason given for refusing the application was the lack of the necessary information as required by the South Malta Local Plan to enable complete assessment in terms of environmental considerations, planning requirements and traffic impact requirements.

In other cases like the proposed extension of the Ta’Cenc hotel and the development of villas at Mgarr ix-Xini, the PA has yet to schedule a public hearing despite the completion of all studies including a revised Environmental Impact Study presented in 2015.

Other cases like that envisaging the extension of the Comino hotel have been shelved. The reason given on the website is that “It has been a long time since some interest was shown by the applicant on this application” and  “the process has therefore been shelved”. Other applications like the one envisaging the redevelopment of the Festival hotel in the vicinity of the red tower in Mellieha, have been pending since 1995 with no final decision ever being taken.