Developers want Zabbar fields included in fixed development zones

If you can’t build according to present rules, change the goalposts.

This looks like the logic behind a mysterious planning application aimed at changing the one certainty of the massive extension of development boundaries in 2006.

For in an unprecedented move, developer Charles Camilleri’s CA&S Limited, wants to actually add yet another 13,865sq.m of agricultural land in Zabbar to the fixed development boundaries.

The application has not yet been ‘validated’ by the Planning Authority.

But the move would result in nothing less than a portion of land equivalent to two football grounds, located along Labour Avenue in Zabbar, being added to the extended development zones.

The agriculture land is being proposed for residential development in the vicinity of James Garage and Lourdes Service Station, part of a large stretch of agricultural land between Triq il-Kunsill tal-Ewropa and Labour Avenue.

The request is called a planning control application, which proposes the inclusion of the site “in the development scheme” by changing the zoning of the area that is presently outside development boundaries.

The application was presented by Jodie Camilleri on behalf of CA&S Limited, one of whose owners is developer Charles Camilleri, known as ‘Tal-Franciz’: he is currently involved in the company seeking a green light for a 13-storey development on the site of the former Jerma Hotel in Marsaskala. The site has multiple owners as the applicant declared he does not own the site in full.

Since the site is presently outside development zones (ODZ), no development except that foreseen in the 2014 rural policy rules can be allowed.

But the application is unprecedented because it proposes, for the first time since the revision of the development boundaries in 2006, that an extensive pocket of ODZ land is scheduled for residential development.

In this case the extension is being proposed through an application by a private developer, and not by the government or the Planning Authority as happened in 2006.

The so-called rationalisation exercise of 2006 foresaw the inclusion of plots, generally surrounded by buildings on three of four sides. The pocket of land in Zabbar is only surrounded by a development on only one side, by a public road on one side and by agricultural land on the remaining two sides.

Over the past years development in ODZ areas has been mainly restricted to a range of developments permitted by the 2014 rural policy, which apart from developments related to agriculture also allows the redevelopment of the ruins of older buildings.

More infrequently, development is allowed in so-called “infill sites” found between existing residential developments. One notable case involved the issue of a permit for four villas in an ODZ location in Kalkara.

Speculation on a prospective extension of building boundaries was recently fuelled by a mysterious advert on a property website – which has since been removed online – describing a 2,750sq.m plot of land located just outside the building scheme in San Pawl tat-Targa as “an investment opportunity since it is adjacent to (building) scheme and with plans to be in rationalisation for development of terraced houses and villas”. The land was given a €1.8 million price tag.