The Planning Authority has given the green light to a massive residential and commercial complex on the parking lot of the former Naxxar trade fair grounds, ignoring warnings about the project's impact on the skyline.
The approved project will be split into two elliptical blocks - measuring eight and 10 floors high - and will include a public open space in between the two towers.
It replaces an original proposal that featured five ‘bottle-like’ structures, submitted by a different applicant and which had been sent back to the drawing board last year.
The new applicant, Joe Debono, on behalf of San Pawl tat-Tarġa Investments Limited, sought a permit for two “medium-rise buildings”, with half of the developable area remaining a public open space.
The project includes four basement levels for 346 parking spaces as well as 108 garages, a 700-square-metre gymnasium, a spa with an indoor pool covering an area of 355 square metres, a café, a restaurant, a bar, a 200-square-metre childcare centre and 12 shops.
The remaining floors would fit in a total of 136 residential units and penthouses. The new project dropped a proposed supermarket and office space that featured in the original application, replacing them with residential units and commercial outlets.
The Environment and Resources Authority determined there was no need for an environmental impact assessment since the proposal “was not likely to have a significant effect on the environment”. A traffic impact assessment was also not requested given the downscaled proposal.
However, a social impact study found that there will be adverse effects on Naxxar and San Pawl Tat-Tarġa residents, while the construction spanning over three to four years would be a nuisance to residents.
Just 35 metres from the UCA
The Superintendence for Cultural Heritage objected to the proposal, finding the height and massing to be excessive as it is close to the town’s urban conservation area.
The site covers an area of around 4,330 square metres and is just 35 metres from the UCA, 100 metres away from the Grade 1 scheduled complex of Palazzo Parisio and its gardens, and 260 metres away from the Grade 1 Torri Gauci.
Naxxar mayor Anne Marie Muscat Fenech Adami, who sat on the PA board given the enormity of the proposal, noted that while the revised plans had taken on board many of its concerns, it still did not address its main one – the height of the development.
An artist's impression of how the project will look.We cannot have everything: mayor
However, the mayor voted in favour of the project “because we cannot have everything”.
Earlier, she said the council was concerned there will be more traffic, especially in the village core, insisting that a traffic impact assessment should have been requested.
“I cannot vote on this application without knowing the consequences of what is being proposed,” she said, before proceeding to vote in favour.
Board member Annik Bonello, civil society’s representative on the board, was the only one to vote against.
She said this was another “piecemeal application”, which did not look at the area holistically.
"Ruining the skyline is a very big concern. We are constantly changing our landscapes for the worse rather than better,” she said.
Flimkien għal Ambjent Aħjar coordinator, Astrid Vella, appealed to the board to demand more studies before going ahead with approving the application.
“Why should we continue contributing to the uglification of our skylines? This cannot carry on. We cannot ruin this area of Naxxar without feasibility studies. There will be a significant social and traffic impact,” she said.