Updated 5.30 pm
Objections to a newly proposed home for the elderly on ODZ land in Birguma have been pouring in after the application came to light in recent days.
The application (PA/06147/24) proposes to build a three-storey, 70-room home on some 9,300sqm of undeveloped land, together with an underground parking area for 104 cars.
Some 3,600sqm of the land will be built, with the remaining area set to be landscaped.
The application is for an outline development permit, which would give the applicant the go-ahead to develop the land in principle but would need to be followed by a full development permit to flesh out the details.
Although the application was submitted in April, it only came to people’s attention when the site notice informing the public of the works appeared this week.
The application, submitted by Arthur Tonna, lists former Labour minister Charles Buhagiar as the project architect. Earlier this year, Buhagiar was appointed to chair the Building and Construction Consultative Council, a body set up to advise the government on construction-related issues.
The PA has received dozens of objections to the project, many of them calling for the ODZ land to remain untouched. Several objectors point to the harm that the construction could have on the flora and fauna of the area, including a series of beehives in the vicinity.
Others said that nearby land was used to let off fireworks during the village feast, questioning whether such developments would put the feasts’ UNESCO heritage status at risk.
This is not the first time that this tract of land has been earmarked for development. A 1998 application to build villas on the site was eventually refused.
In a statement later on Tuesday, the Għargħur local council said it has objected to the application.
"The land should remain ODZ first and foremost," the council said in a Facebook post.
"This is over and about the fact that the safeguarding of the land and the traditional culture of the Maltese feast as intangible cultural heritage by UNESCO."