The Qormi local council fears that a planning application to build a hotel will shatter the tranquillity of the quiet residential area it is planned for if approved. 

The council called a press conference on Sunday to raise awareness about the application PA/07217/24, which seeks to demolish two houses in Triq H'Attard and build a three-star hotel on the site. 

The application by Paul Ciappara and Benny Cortis is asking for permission to build a five-floor building with 14 rooms, which will include a rooftop pool and a restaurant on the ground floor. 

The property is located adjacent to Qormi farmland and just a few metres away from a chapel dating to the 1600s, dedicated to il-Madonna tal-Blat (Our Lady of the Rocks). 

The property, the second from last building from left, is just a stone's throw away from the historic Madonna tal-Blat chapel, which dates back the 1600's. Photo: Matthew Mirabelli.

Qormi Mayor Josef Masini Vento said that the area has always been quiet and a residential zone and a hotel development was absolutely inappropriate for the area. 

“This development will have a negative impact on our locality and the families who live here,” he said. 

“This is also an environmentally sensitive area as these are some of the last fields that are still in use for agricultural purposes and serve as a green lung to the community,” he said. 

Plans to build a road alongside the property will see the destruction of arable land, some of the last green lungs in the locality. Photo: Matthew Mirabelli

Masini Vento explained that the application includes plans to construct a new road that will pass through some adjacent fields, which are arable and still being used to farm produce. 

The marking for the new road can be seen delineated in the site plan submitted for the application which is publicly available. 

The fields in question, he said, had once been outside of the development zone but were rezoned as suitable for development in the 2006 local plans.

He said that if mistakes were made during the rationalisation exercise, they should not be allowed to continue perpetuating once they have been recognised as wrong. 

The property features a niche depicting a saint on its façade. Photo: Matthew Mirabelli

“We cannot continue to use something that we know is wrong as an excuse,” he said. 

“The loss of these fields to build a road would be a tragedy. A road choking one of the last remaining green lungs in Qormi.” 

The council, he added, wanted to take a united stand on the matter and oppose the development as it would be “another environmental disaster”, he said. 

The application is yet to receive a formal recommendation from the planning directorate and is scheduled to be decided on February 10, 2025.