NGOs say they'll turn to UNESCO to protect Ġgantija from apartment project

A trio of NGOs have threatened to file a report with world heritage body UNESCO if an application to build a 27-apartment complex within the Ġgantija temples buffer zone proceeds.

In a statement, the Coalition for Gozo – comprising Din l-Art Ħelwa Għawdex, Għawdix and Wirt Għawdex – requested the Planning Authority (PA) suspend the application and commission a heritage impact assessment of the plans.

The NGOs also called on the PA to make sure that a “proper evaluation” of the buildings set to be demolished to make way for the development, which the coalition noted is "less than 100 metres” from the Xagħra Stone Circle site in Gozo, is carried out.

A decision on the application (PA/07453/24), which has been deemed “objectionable in principle” by the Superintendence of Cultural Heritage (SCH), was deferred in a planning hearing Thursday.

Last October, applicant Rita Attard submitted plans to demolish “disused” buildings spanning three door numbers on Triq tal-Qacca in Xagħra and excavate two basement levels.

In their place, Attard wants to build a three-storey complex featuring a receded floor and two levels below street level.

The proposal includes “36 basement garages, a class 4b retail shop at the ground floor level and a total of 27 residential units, comprising 10 duplex apartments, 14 apartments and three dwellings”, according to PA documentation.

The development – which has attracted 11 objections – would also see the construction of a communal pool at basement level.

The architects for the project are Vella + Grech Periti.

The proposed development is within the UNESCO Ġgantija temples buffer zone (pink) and partly inside the Xagħra Stone Circle buffer zone (blue). Graphic: Coalition for Gozo.

Opposing the development, the Coalition for Gozo emphasised its location within the Ġgantija temples buffer zone, “with roughly half of it falling inside the approved buffer zone of the Xagħra Stone Circle”.

“The proposal also entails the destruction of what appears to be a cluster of architecturally significant vernacular [traditional] farmhouse rooms. Furthermore, the rear elevation of the proposed development would constitute a visual blight,” the coalition statement read.

While noting that the SCH had found the plans “objectionable” in its response to the application, the NGOs took issue with the superintendence saying that further studies “may” be required in light of the location for the development. 

“The SCH is well aware that a heritage impact assessment (HIA) is in fact required, and the use of the word ‘may’ in its communication to the PA is misleading”, the organisations said.

“If the superintendence truly found the proposal ‘objectionable in principle,’ it should have immediately requested an HIA and suspended the application until the impact of the development on this highly sensitive archaeological area had been properly assessed”.

The proposed back elevation of the development. Graphic: Planning Authority.

The coalition added that it was “abundantly clear” that a Chamber of Architects directive concerning developments within UNESCO buffer zones in Malta had been "entirely disregarded” by the project’s architects.

“If this application proceeds in its present form, the Coalition for Gozo will have no other option except to once again submit a formal report to UNESCO, as it did in the case of Ġgantija Heights, something the coalition would like to avoid, as this is risking yet another international rebuke for Malta and further negative exposure in the international press.”

In March last year, a controversial Planning Board decision to allow the 22-apartment block of flats Ġgantija Heights development in the buffer zone of the Ġgantija temples was overturned by the same board following pressure from the coalition and the SCH.