The competent state departments are studying cumulatively the impact (traffic, environmental and economic) from the proposed two new Shopping Centers, at a distance of a few hundred meters from each other, at the intersection of Spyros Avenue Kyprianou in Mesa Geitonia and Agios Athanasios Avenue in the homonymous Municipality, whose applications for permits are pending.
From the Ministry of Interior, which "Entrepreneurial Limassol" contacted, we were told that the two applications are examined by the competent branch in the Department of Town Planning and Housing. As well as that these are evaluated on the basis of consultations with other Departments on essential issues (such as environmental and traffic) and therefore, the cumulative effects of what is proposed are also examined.
According to the Ministry, for the time being, there is no conclusion as to the outcome of the applications and nothing else can be said that may pre-empt any decision. "Entrepreneurial Limassol" also contacted the Ministry of Transport, Communications and Works, which also assured us that any impact is being examined as a whole and jointly. "The relevant study by the Department of Public Works has not been completed and therefore no further examination has been carried out, since the examination by the Department of Public Works and Town Planning must first be completed and then the further course of the applications will be judged and whether the whole issue will be put before a Ministerial Committee", we were told.
On the issue of the impact of both proposed two new malls, the Environment Department is also conducting studies. On May 19, an Information Report was submitted to the Department through the Director of the Department of Town Planning for the construction and operation of a shopping center under the name "The Mall of Limassol", owned by Atterbury Europe, as well as the construction of a roundabout at the junction of Spyros Kyprianou and Georgios Neophytou Avenues, in the Mesa Geitonia Municipality.
The Environment Department is called upon to evaluate the report, which includes an Environmental Impact Study, and to issue a relevant opinion-reasoned finding. To this end, it has written to all the state agencies involved asking for their views. A similar report was submitted to the same Department on September 22 by Nicosia Mall in cooperation with the Papantoniou Group, who plan to build a Shopping Center within the Commercial and Industrial Zone next to Jumbo, within the administrative boundaries of the Agios Athanasios Municipality, on pieces of land that they say "do not have immediate proximity to a residential zone and so it will cause no disturbance to the residents of the area."
Agios Athanasios Mayor, Marinos Kyriakou, stressed that the Local Authority is very concerned about traffic. He added that for any permission for a Shopping Center to be granted, Agios Athanasios Avenue must first take its final form: to construct the roundabout at Linopetra traffic lights on Kolonaki Avenue as well as to extend the road by submersion (as provided for in the Master Plan) to the coastal road. The Municipal Council decided that it will take a positive or negative position on the issue, after receiving all the relevant studies.
