‘Even Valletta had its detractors’, says Sadeen’s man...

“When the city of Valletta was built, there were people who complained against the development and criticised it. These people eventually died but the city remained and the criticism was forgotten.”

This reference to a historical detail that is unknown to Maltese historians, was made by Sadeen Group’s Chief Operational Officer Yousef Al Haroub, in an official meeting with the Marsaskala local council and a representative of the Office of the Prime Minister in November 2015, minutes released by the council show.  

Al Haroub – who introduced himself as an “architect, artist and sculptor and more by profession” – compared the proposed educational institute at Zonqor Point and Bormla to Renzo Piano’s City Gate project, adding that the best trace one can leave in history was “not a factory building or a farm, but an educational institution.”

Al Haroub revealed that his interest in Malta dated back to 2002, when he was already in Malta for six months “making a detailed survey of Valletta and the need of restorations.”

It was this experience which encouraged him to join Sadeen Group’s initiative to develop the ‘American University of Malta’, which is partly to be sited at Zonqor in Marsaskala.

The council released the minutes of the meeting only a few days ago following a request by PN councillor Charlot Cassar.

The minutes documenting the meeting, held at the WasteServ facility in November, between Sadeen Group, the council and OPM representative Alex Muscat, confirms that a proposal for a new council building, as part of a planning gain on Sadeen’s behalf – was not raised at the official meeting.

Marsaskala’s Labour mayor Mario Calleja has been accused by environmentalists of an ethical breach by accepting a “gift” from Sadeen, consisting of new premises for the council.

But the local governance board has ruled that there was nothing illegal or unethical in the way the mayor solicited financial help for the local council from the developers of the proposed ‘American University of Malta’.

The board said that local councils were prohibited from giving donations but were not barred from receiving them, at least not unless this compromised them in some way.

The local governance report revealed that after the meeting, council executive secretary Josef Grech and Calleja had a chat with Sadeen representative Al Haroub, and the conversation eventually turned to the proposed premises for the new council, during which Al Haroub asked the pair whether Sadeen could help out the council in any way.

Calleja and Grech proposed that planning gains imposed on Sadeen by MEPA could be partially allocated to the premises project. Al Haroub promptly agreed to their proposal.

When contacted, Mayor Calleja refused to answer questions on why this matter was not discussed at the official meeting but only in a private chat after the meeting.

The council’s minutes also reveal that OPM representative Muscat told the council that “the council was still at the stage whereby they could propose certain matters for the evaluation of the developers” and that he did not recall any other circumstance where a developer ever met with a council prior to submitting a MEPA application, and that the council should “appreciate the fact”.

During the meeting the developers confirmed that dormitories would be built at Zonqor for 500 first-year students. Al Haroub also told PN councillor Charlot Cassar that he assumed that only 7%-10% of AUM staff would be using private cars, while the rest would be using public transport.

Deputy mayor and PL councillor Desiree Attard, who opposes siting the university at Zonqor, asked whether alternative sites were still being considered as had been confirmed by MEPA CEO Johann Buttigieg during a meeting of the parliamentary committee on the environment; and that a forthcoming environment impact assessment would not be limited to the Zonqor site but would assess different sites.  

But OPM representative Muscat replied that “part of the EIA requirements feature the proposal of an alternative site” and in the application itself the developer will be expected to “highlight why the proposed site (Zonqor) is better than the alternative one.”

Al Haroub also lamented that Triq il-Blajjiet, the road leading up to the AUM site, was not a properly designed road as it splits virgin land in two and that the existing building line is too fragmented and should “have a better flow.”

He revealed that when the footprint at Zonqor was reduced from 90,000 square metres to 31,000 square metres (18,000 sq.m remain outside the development zones) “a lot of sports facilities had to be removed” but the development will still incorporate a basketball and volleyball court and an indoor pool, which will be open to the public during “certain hours”.