‘Sustainable’ development not excluded for Natura 2000 site
James Debono Amid reports that the new owners of the Comino Hotel intend reviving a development application “to upgrade the hotel”, MEPA has said that development could still take place despite the island being designated as a Natura 2000 site.
Comino forms part of the EU’s ecological network of protected areas, but MEPA has told MaltaToday that tourist development can still take place if it is “sustainable”.
The application for the Comino Hotel extension, now owned by entrepreneurs Joe Gasan and George Fenech, was presented 11 years ago and suspended by MEPA in 2003 when the architect failed to submit the required documents within the legal timeframe.
The planning authority says that since Natura 2000 rules are based on the sustainability approach, development is not excluded if it is either directly necessary for the management of the protected area, or if it is deemed to have no significant effect.
But the same spokesperson has made it clear that an environment impact assessment will be required to determine if further development in Comino is compatible with the terms of the Habitats Directive and relevant environmental laws.
Environmentalists and conservationists could certainly be facing a new battlefront. In May 2007, four major entrepreneurs – Albert and Maurice Mizzi of the Mizzi Associated Enterprises, and Joseph Gasan and George Fenech on behalf of Ropes Services – signed a new memorandum of association for Kemmuna Ltd. One of the new objectives of the company was “to own, manage or administer the charter of yachts, boats and other vessels” and “to engage in property development” and to “demolish, construct and finish buildings whether of a residential or commercial nature.”
Back then MaltaToday had noted that the new interest tied in well with the Gozo and Comino Local Plan, which earmarks San Niklaw and the Blue Lagoon bay areas as a possible site for a “destination port” – a euphemism for a fully-blown yacht marina – alongside Marsalforn and Hondoq ir-Rummien in Gozo.
The local plan accords Comino the status of Special Area of Conservation and nature reserve, and only allows developers to “upgrade” the existing tourist complex and hotel if it is “compatible with the sensitivity of the surrounding context.”
MEPA has insisted that Kemmuna Ltd’s first application is still suspended. But a letter asking MEPA to issue the relevant permit was sent by architect Edwin Mintoff in September 2008.
The same architect also sent two reports related to the project in 2007, following a five-year lull in communication between the developers and MEPA.
New ownership Joseph Gasan and George Fenech bought a share in Kemmuna Ltd, which runs the Comino Hotel and bungalows on the island, after acquiring Ropes Services Ltd in November 2007, a company registered in the Isle of Man.
Ropes Services then proceeded to acquire 551,470 ordinary shares in Kemmuna, with the remaining 698,530 belonging to Mizzi Associated Enterprises, owned by property magnate Albert Mizzi.
In the meantime, another Kemmuna shareholder – Lombard Bank – also sold its shares, to Hili Investments Ltd, which immediately sold their shares to Ropes Services. This was followed by an increase of the company’s authorised share capital, which now amounts to €3.4 million.
Lombard Bank director Joseph Said and Albert Mizzi’s son Alec gave up their directorship in Kemmuna, to be replaced by Gasan and Fenech.
In March 2008, Ropes Services applied to the Isle of Man’s financial supervision commission to transfer the domicile of the company to Malta.
Kemmuna Ltd pays the government an annual ground rent of €11,768 for over 28,000 square metres.
The island was first leased to the Zammit Cutajar family in 1926. The lease was relinquished in 1960, and the government granted the island to British millionaire John Gaul for a term of 150 years. The lease was renegotiated to reduce the area occupied by Gaul to that presently occupied by the Comino Hotel at San Niklaw bay and the bungalows at Santa Marija bay.
Subsequently, John Gaul’s wife sold the hotel to entrepreneurs Cecil and Henry Pace. When their BICAL group of companies were put under government control, Central Bank controller Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici (later Labour prime minister) transferred the hotel back to landlord John Gaul, free of charge.
Gaul disposed of the hotel some weeks later for the price of Lm2 million and a Lm50,000 annual rent. Eventually, the company was to become part of Albert Mizzi’s empire.
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