A proposed four-storey block of apartments at the edge of a protected zone in Naxxar would continue to turn the area into a ‘favela’ and overshadow a heritage gem, residents have charged.
They are calling on the Planning Authority to reject the application for two apartments and a duplex penthouse with pool to be built on top of a garage opposite an 18th-century villa located in an urban conservation area.
The proposed development would further suffocate an area of cultural significance, 12 residents objecting to the plan say.
They note that the PA sent two other applications for the area – one for a 10-storey development and another for a four-storey block – back to the drawing board because they jarred with the surrounding architecture.
But they insist there needs to be an urgent change in policy to prevent these developments from being proposed in the first place, seeing as some of them were slipping through.
“This will be the third towering block of apartments in such close proximity to buildings of architectural sensitivity in this particular area, undermining the whole point of the urban conservation area, meant to protect the town’s heritage,” Victoria Dutton, the owner of the 18th century Villa Castro, remarks.
“My home used to be the jewel in the crown of Triq Castro, the dominant building at the end of the street,” she recounts.
“Now, instead of being celebrated, it is dwarfed by the ever-increasing heights of new buildings and surrounded on two sides already by massive, insensitive construction.”
The villa, which won the Din L-Art Ħelwa Heritage Award in 2016 and was shortlisted for the World Architecture Festival award the following year, is in the process of being scheduled.
A block bordering the back of 18th century Villa Castro, showing the lack of transition from old to new.“It took 10 years of careful, studied, meticulous and expensive restoration to preserve my home of fine Maltese heritage. Why threaten it with yet another insensitive construction directly opposite its façade, why would you do that?”
Another long-time resident, Paul Tabone, notes that a recently erected block already towers over his property and the proposed one would rob him of the rest of the remaining light.
“I’ve been happy here for 20 years but it’s quite obvious we’re going to have sell up,” he says.
“What used to be a really peaceful area is now becoming a favela.”
Another resident, Nina Zammit, says the frenzied development is eating away at their quality of life and devaluing architecture they had carefully preserved at great cost to themselves in accordance with urban conservation area rules.
“We need a buffer zone of some kind, otherwise what is the point of having a protected area? We may as well be allowed to build on top of our own properties,” she complains.