Hondoq development set for Planning Authority refusal

The Planning Authority is expected to turn down a controversial application at Hondoq ir-Rummien for the development of a tourist village.

The Planning Board will discuss an application presented in 2002, envisioning the development of a destination port comprising a hotel, a yacht marina and a tourist village at Hondoq ir-Rummien in Gozo. 

The Planning Directorate is calling on the board to reject the project.

The decision will be taken in a marathon session on Thursday at the Mediterranean Conference Centre during which the PA will also be taking a decision on a proposed 38-storey tower in Sliema, which is being recommended for approval by the same Planning Directorate.

The case officer acknowledged that the project will break the Sliema skyline but said the PA’s policy on tall buildings approved in 2014 now identifies the Tigné area as “a cluster of tall buildings.”

The Hondoq development is deemed to be in breach of the Strategic Plan for the Environment and Development as it constitutes “a dense urban development” in a “coastal rural area.” It is also in breach of the SPED’s vision of Gozo as an “ecological island.”

The proposed project includes a deluxe 5-star hotel with 110 bedrooms, bedroom hotel, 20 self-catering villas, 60 apartments serviced by the hotel, 203 apartments, 1,249 underground parking spaces, a village centre which includes a church and shops and a yacht marina for approximately 100 to 150 berths.

The project was consistently opposed by Front Harsien Hondoq led by tireless campaigner and Labour councillor Paul Buttigieg and backed by all environmental NGOs.

In 2011 the Planning Authority’s Environment Protection Directorate had already called for a refusal of the project.

MEPA’s Planning Directorate was just about to issue the final case officer report calling for a refusal of the project when the developers presented a set of new plans which retained the residential aspect of the project but dropped the yacht marina, replacing it with a swimming lagoon.

The authority told the Hondoq ir-Rummien developers that it would only consider the latest plans if a new application is presented.

When the project was first proposed, then Gozo Minister  Giovanna Debono had described it as beneficial to Gozo. But in a clear indication that the project was heading nowhere, then parliamentary secretary Mario de Marco, when asked about the project replied that “our environment is too small to afford to suffer any more mistakes than we have already committed in the past, sometimes even in the name of tourism and progress”.

The application has been dormant since 2011 and has only been resurrected now on the same day that the PA is expected to decide on the controversial Sliema tower.

Gzira lido set for approval

In the same marathon session, the PA will also be taking a final decision on the development of a private lido on reclaimed land at the Gzira waterfront. The development proposes, two 160 square metre restaurants and a large private swimming pool over a total area of 2,300 square metres of reclaimed land along the Gzira promenade.

The Planning Directorate is recommending the approval of the project, which was approved at outline stage last year.

While the existing promenade will be retained, sea views will be interrupted by the approved private facilities that will serve four Gzira hotels.

Walking directly along the seashore on this part of the Gzira coast will still be possible along a new, two-metre wide passageway – wide enough for two people to walk side by side – skirting around the new pool area.