Top developer Carlo Stivala has been allowed to build a 13-storey block on the Sliema seafront despite only having a permit for nine storeys, Flimkien Għal Ambjent Aħjar has alleged.

The planning-focused NGO said that the Planning Authority was aware of the issue at the Sliema Ferries site but has "ignored" reports about it. 

Stivala denies having broken the law and says critics were incorrectly calculating the height of the as-yet-unfinished building by comparing it to an older building next door to it.

The controversy concerns a site on the corner of Triq ix-Xatt and Triq il-Lunzjata.

Stivala first obtained permission to demolish the former bank building on the corner of Triq ix-Xatt and Triq il-Lunzjata and rebuild it into an eight-floor apartment block in 2013 (PA/03533/13). Three years later, the Planning Authority approved a new permit to add a ninth floor to the building (PA/06534/16).

In 2023, the developer filed a new permit application (PA 3229/23), seeking to turn the project into a 15-floor development also featuring a hotel and restaurant, leveraging a PA policy allowing hotels to rise two floors above the maximum building height limit in the area. That permit is still being assessed by a Planning Authority case officer and remains pending. 

But FAA said the developer has already built 13 of its 15 floors, despite not having a permit to do so.

“The whole structure is being built abusively, with different internal dimensions and a different façade following application PA 3229/23 which has not been processed yet, still less approved. The building has already risen to 13 floors, in violation of its nine-floor permit,” the NGO said.

When Times of Malta visited the site on Monday morning, the ongoing construction project was draped in canvas, making it difficult to calculate its height accurately. However, the building very visibly dwarfed the nine-storey block adjacent to it.

Stivala, however, said the two buildings could not be compared.

Photo: Chris Sant Fournier

“Our block was built in line with building height limitations established in 2015,” he said. “The neighbouring block was built decades ago and could, under current laws, rise by a further two floors.”

Those 2015 building height rules – published as a notorious annexe in the so-called DC15 document – set height limits for buildings in metres. Previously, height limits were stipulated in storeys.

Those changes are generally seen as having given developers the opportunity to squeeze in more storeys into developments, by reducing the height of each one.

Although the DC15 amendments have attracted vocal criticism from campaigners, activists and residents’ groups, the government last year indicated that it intends to entrench them into law by adding them to local plans.

While Stivala insisted that the Sliema Ferries construction stuck to the letter of the law, FAA said it has information that the Planning Authority “is aware of the abuse but has done nothing to stop it.”

It added that residents in the area reported illegal construction taking place on a Sunday but inspectors only visited the site at the end of the working day.

“The fact that the Planning Authority allowed the developer to continue with his project when they were informed of the abuse, indicates that the Authorities have abandoned all pretence of a functioning urban planning regime. The developer evidently knows that his abuse will be sanctioned, where other civilized countries would demand that its demolition,” it said.  

Stivala’s plans for the site are practically a mirror image of another planning application he has filed for a separate block on the Sliema seafront, just a few metres down from this development. That proposal (PA 02965/23), is to build a 15-storey hotel with a restaurant and is also still pending before the PA.  

Both proposals were filed on Stivala’s behalf by architects Falzon & Cutajar and have drawn objections from residents and the cultural watchdog, which noted the projects are partially within Sliema's Urban Conservation Area. 

Concerns over floor height

Flimkien Għal Ambjent Aħjar also flagged another concern about the Sliema Ferries proposal: PA filings by the project’s architects propose floors that are 2.40 metres high, it said, noting that planning law requires a minimum 2.65m height.

An extract of elevation plans submitted as part of the pending proposal lists floor heights as 2.40m.

Elevation drawings filed as part of the planning application list floors as being “2.40” in height.

“Is the ‘Stivala’ name automatically exempt from Malta’s laws? This also calls into question the ethics of the architects who submit plans in violation of sanitary law, as well as supervising a structure being built without the necessary permits,” FAA said.

Momentum chair Arnold Cassola also raised concerns about the building last week, posting a picture of the tarp-covered structure and questioning whether the current height of the building is covered by a valid planning permit. 

When contacted, Stivala said the 2.40m height refers to the external height of floors, when balcony lintels were taken into account.

“Inside the buildings, floors will be 2.65m high,” he insisted.