‘Cheap land renders American University viable’

It is the availability of cheap, public land located outside development zones which renders the American University at Zonqor Point viable.

This emerged from a reply of a Sadeen Group representative during a consultation meeting with the Marsaskala local council held at the Office of the Prime Minister on Monday, 4 May, days after the location of the development was revealed by Alternattiva Demokratika.

In answer to a query by Nationalist Party councillor Charlot Cassar on why ODZ land was chosen and why other sites were not considered, the Sadeen Group representative replied that had the developer been asked to pay a commercial price for the land the viability of the project would have been compromised.

Other councillors present at the meeting confirmed this.

90,000 square metres of virgin, agricultural land, equivalent to the area of 12 football pitches, is being made available to the Jordanian group of contractors and real estate developers who will for the first time ever, build a university campus for 4,000 paying students.

This confirms that Sadeen Group are being regaled with a tract of land in ‘outside development zones’ because ODZ land used for agriculture has a much lower value than that allocated for development.

Councillors were also told that the developers were originally interested in regenerating White Rocks – another piece of cheap public land for which the government issued a call for expressions of interest last year. 

But councillors were told that the government insisted that the project should be in the south and offered them Zonqor.

Both PN councillor John Baptist Camilleri and PL deputy mayor Desiree Attard confirmed this.

On their part, Sadeen represenattive Kevin Deguara, a partner at DF Advocates, said that White Rocks was “only mentioned in passing during one of the many discussions we had with the government of Malta as was anyway too large for what we required. Sadeen never expressed any interest in this location since to our knowledge the White Rocks Complex was already earmarked for another project by the government.” 

Deguara said that Sadeen, who set up their Sadeen Educational and Sadeen Rehabiltation companies in June 2014, spent a year in discussion and negotiations with the government.

“We made direct contact with government during our first visit to the island in April 2014. At Sadeen, investment decisions aren’t based on personal relations but as a result of comprehensive studies covering market opportunity, financial, economical, legal and other business aspects that altogether convince us of the viability of the project.” 

Zonqor was identified through a “desktop study” conducted by the office of MEPA Chief Executive Officer, Johann Buttigieg – ostensibly on the instruction of the Office of the Prime Minister, under whose responsibility MEPA ultimately falls. 

Councillors were also told that buildings would not rise higher than three storeys, although they would not commit themselves to setting the height in metres for each storey.

Offering cheap public land for development has characterised a number of land development projects carried out over the past decades, which included the Portomaso development, Smart City and the attempt by the previous government to offer White Rocks for a combination of sports and residential development.

The sale of public land

Cheap ground rents to accommodate development have been an undeclared policy by governments over the past decades.

The entire area of Portomaso was leased by the state to the developers for Lm191,000 (€444,910) until 2014, and eventually sold to the developers for Lm800,000 in 2006.

The Ricasoli land – a huge industrial wasteland the size of 40 football grounds – was offered to Tecom Investments for a ground rent of Lm65,000 (€150,000) a year, increasing by 5% every five years.

The project also included 119,000 square metres of floor-space (the size of 20 football grounds) for real estate and commercial development.

In 1999 a public tender was issued for the development of White Rocks, restricting development to the site occupied by the abandoned holiday complex.

But in 2010 Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi changed tack, accepting the idea of real estate as a way of financing the development of a sports complex. Negotiations were carried out with a UK consortium in the absence of any public tender, but talks failed to yield any tangible results, amid concern that the project would have impacted on a buffer zone for a Natura 2000 site. 

In 2014, Labour issued a call for expressions of interest, aimed at attracting real estate development. The real estate component was actually an an end in itself, since the government is now targeting “a village of luxury units” that will be fully developed and funded by the private sector.

The development in Zonqor takes this logic to a new level: the land the government wants to dish out to developers is earmarked for inclusion in a natural park that was already proposed in the local plan approved in 2006.

MEPA claims Zonqor university has ‘lesser impact’ upon environment

The Malta Environment and Planning Authority has insisted that the site for the American University, an area the size of 12 football pitches, is “the one which has the lesser impact” on the environment.

Earlier this week MaltaToday revealed that the 2006 local plan had designated the area as being part of a proposed natural park. 

When MaltaToday asked MEPA why the site was even considered, a spokesperson replied that MEPA had carried out a comparative analysis on sites in the south of Malta where land belongs to the government.

“Of all the sites identified in the south, that are government-owned, the site at Zonqor in Marsaskala is the one which has the lesser impact,” the MEPA spokesperson said.

In an earlier reply, MEPA revealed that the only site in the south conforming to the government’s specification that the land should be mostly government-owned, was the area around St Leonard Fort but this was discarded because of the impact on the fortification.

MEPA justified Zonqor because although the area was outside development zones, the site was neither scheduled nor a Natura 2000 site. 

“As long as a project is in line with the provisions of the Structure Plan, a project can be considered by the authority,” the spokesperson replied when it was pointed out that the American University would be in sharp conflict with the 2006 local plan.

Alternative sites would still be considered in the future. “As part of the EIA process, the applicant will be obliged to carry out a full site selection exercise together with studies on what alternative building technologies can be applied.”

The 2006 local plan states that the area at l-Ghassa tal-Munxar in Marsaskala and the coastal stretch between Zonqor Point and Xghajra’s Blata l-Bajda should be a natural park as “primarily for informal recreation (e.g. walking, cycling) and the appreciation of the ecological, geological, archaeological as well as cultural-historical features of these areas.”

And yet the site was still earmarked as ‘acceptable’ for Sadeen’s plans for a university campus, in a desktop study conducted by the “coordination office” of MEPA chief executive officer Johann Buttigieg.

Prime Minister Joseph Muscat has declared that the proposed park is “complementary” to the ODZ campus development. Sadeen have also committed to part-finance the natural park.

But effectively it turns out that the developers will be taking part of the proposed natural park, despite it carrying the seal of approval in a legally binding local plan. 

MEPA’s Planning Directorate normally recommends a refusal for any development deemed to be in breach of policies enshrined in the approved local plan. 

Only limited commercial development related to the needs of visitors can be approved in the approved natural park and this has to be identified by a management plan.

Despite designating the area as a natural park, the PN government had not approved management plans for the different areas of the natural park. In 2009 part of the site was even proposed for the relocation of a caravan site, but this idea was scrapped after NGOs objected.