Richard England prefers to set his eyes elsewhere, across the bay, when asked about the Xemxija ridge building that will rise to 12 floors.

The veteran architect insists tall buildings should not stand on the ridge of a hill.

“It will stand out,” he says and points towards a low-density building erected by British architects in the late 1960s on Wardija ridge opposite.

Prof. England argues the Wardija building, a design by John Madin partnership, is a good example of how buildings on a ridge should be built.

The building he speaks of blends into the ridge, unobtrusive and easy on the eye. It is the opposite of what will go up on Xemxija ridge.

Approved this week by the planning authority, the Xemxija project will see the construction of 744 apartments, offices and retail outlets spread over 12 floors. It will replace the now defunct low-lying Mistra Village holiday complex that was razed to the ground a couple of years ago.

“You do not put a tall building on the ridge of a hill... it has to be a low building or inserted into the hill but, wherever possible, high-rises should be avoided in Malta,” Prof. England says.

Only Malta loses on Xemxija ridge irrespective of the short-term gain for the economy

Carmel Cacopardo, Alternattiva Demokratika’s sustainable development spokesman, is not only worried about the aesthetics. He believes the building of so many residential units and other facilities will attract more traffic to an already congested area.

“The infrastructure already cannot cope with the amount of apartment blocks that were allowed to mushroom in the area let alone with the new development,” he argues.

Mr Cacopardo says that the project will create more pressure to build a new alternative road that will, in turn, cause environmental problems.

The project, to be developed by Gemxija Crown Ltd, is a multimillion euro investment by Kuwaiti company Al Massaleh and minority shareholders Montebello brothers.

Fahad Al-Khatrash, CEO of Al Massaleh, has argued the project will be an attraction to foreign investors.

However, Mr Cacopardo questions the futility of building more apartments with so many empty dwellings around.

He explains that from a strictly legal perspective the planning board could not stop the permit since an outline permit had been issued in 2008. However, the board could have objected to the project as presented, questioning whether it satisfied the criteria laid out five years ago.

On Thursday, none of this happened, leaving environmental groups flabbergasted at how the authority could approve, in the words of Din l-Art Ħelwa executive president, “a vast urban metropolis”.

Simone Mizzi insists the outline permit granted in 2008 followed misleading and incomplete information to the former Malta Environment and Planning Authority board.

“Only Malta loses on Xemxija ridge irrespective of the short-term gain for the economy,” she says, expressing concern that the effort to protect the environment is left to NGOs when the real responsibility should be that of Mepa itself.

She questions whether the final drawings as presented by the applicant truly represent “a high-calibre quality building” as the yet unapproved high-rise policy dictates.

Ms Mizzi describes the project as “multiple repetitions of boxes accented in red, blue and green massed in a most unnatural adjacency to the surrounding landscape”.

But a major concern for Din l-Art Ħelwa is the precedent set by Mepa’s approval for the construction of more high-rise buildings on hilltops and ridges.

By creating a permanent blot on the immediate surroundings, Ms Mizzi argues, the Xemxija permit may be used as an excuse to threaten what is left of the country’s unspoilt landscape.

ksansone@timesofmalta.com