Naxxar trade fair grounds developers want a taller tower

Developers behind the construction of the eight- and 10-storey towers at the car park of the former Naxxar trade fair grounds are seeking to increase the height of the shorter tower.

The company behind the development, San Pawl tat-Tarġa Investments Limited, is proposing to increase the development zone of the site. That would, in turn, increase the maximum gross floor area that is permitted to be constructed on the site.

Although the developers are proposing extending the development zone, they say the public open space, measuring around 2,600 square metres, will remain unchanged, besides a small outdoor play area for a childcare centre.

The project (PA 2427/21), currently under construction, will have four basement levels for 346 parking spaces, as well as 108 garages, a gymnasium, a spa with an indoor pool, a café, a restaurant, a bar, the childcare centre and 12 shops.

The applicants, through architecture firm Bencini and Associates, filed a planning control application (PC 61/25) over a month ago proposing to reduce the width of the front garden zone from three to 1.2 metres.

A planning control application does not propose any development; instead, it proposes altering the planning zones of different areas.

This means the zone designated for the front garden will be downsized from 860 to 351 square metres. The residential development zone will increase by 509 square metres.

Gross floor area and a front 'garden'

Joe Debono, speaking on behalf of the company, told Times of Malta that, by reducing the front garden zone and increasing the residential development zone, the maximum gross floor area (GFA) permitted on the site will increase.

According to the development permit, the company will use 20,276 square metres of the 20,567.5 square metres available, the maximum GFA permitted. If the new application is approved, the maximum GFA will increase.

This follows the floor area ratio (FAR) policy, which is used to determine permissible building volume, height and public open space based on site characteristics and planning parameters.

Plans showing the developers’ proposal to shrink the front garden zone. Photo: Planning Authority

Debono clarified that, although the perimeter of the site is labelled as the front garden zone, it is not a garden but part of the paved open space found in the rest of the development.

By increasing the site’s permitted GFA, he added, the company will be allowed to extend the height of the eight-storey tower but no more than the height of the adjacent 10-storey tower.

The increased GFA will also allow the company to construct a small, fenced-off outdoor play area for the childcare centre planned for the ground floor, Debono noted.

Besides the outdoor play area, nothing about the open space will change, he pointed out, stressing that everything outside will remain as it was originally permitted.

Council raises concerns

“Everybody has something to gain from this. Yes, we would increase the number of flats but we would also be contributing to the local council, the shops that will be there and the childcare centre,” he said.

Naxxar’s local council filed a representation to the fresh application seeking more clarity. It raised concerns about how the application may have “significant implications” such as “potential future attempts to alter the “massing, footprint, or height of the approved towers”.

“The council emphasises that no zoning revisions should be considered unless their implications for the approved development and public open space are fully understood and publicly clarified,” it said.

The towers under construction. Photo: Jonathan Borg

When the new application was filed, fresh drawings were submitted to the already approved planning permit. The plans include reconfigurations of apartments and commercial outlets but no form of expansion.

The development caused a backlash from objectors who argued that the two towers would have a detrimental impact on the locality’s skyline.

Then-mayor Anne Marie Muscat Fenech Adami had chosen to vote in favour of the development, despite the council initially objecting to the development and the Nationalist Party informing her to vote against it. It later emerged she was the company secretary in a firm partly owned by Edwin Mintoff, the project’s architect.

An appeal was filed by Din l-Art Ħelwa, Għaqda Kulturali Wirt Naxxari, Nationalist councillor Joseph Spiteri and several Naxxar residents, arguing there was a conflict of interest.

However, in October 2022, the Environment and Planning Review Tribunal (EPRT) rejected the claim and threw out the appeal.

In May 2023, a court rejected an appeal by NGOs and residents to overturn the planning permit, declaring that the mayor did not have a conflict of interest when she voted in favour of the project.