Naxxar residents and environmental NGOs have come together to crowdfund an appeal against the massive residential and commercial complex planned for the parking lot of the former trade fair grounds in Naxxar.
The group was on Monday close to collecting the €1,300 needed to file the appeal with the Planning Authority and finance legal action against the 10-storey development.
Efforts are also under way to fund technical studies and experts to fight the approved project.
“We need this appeal to counter the Planning Authority decision on the Naxxar high-rise, challenge it on technical grounds as well as on other issues where there was no good governance in the way this decision was taken. We can make it,” the crowdfunding page description said.
“A concerned group of residents has been actively trying to ward off overdevelopment in the Trade Fair area and surroundings. This appeal is important because Naxxarin can make their mark against future developments.
“These appeals have already worked in the past. We need to send a message to the local council after the shocking vote in favour of this project,” it added.
Earlier this month, the PA gave its green light to the project, ignoring warnings about its impact on the skyline.
The project will be split into two elliptical blocks measuring eight and 10 floors high and will also 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 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 Naxxar local council, represented by Mayor Anne Marie Muscat Fenech Adami, voted in favour of the project.
It later emerged that Muscat Fenech Adami is company secretary in a company of which the project’s architect is a shareholder. This led the Nationalist Party to demand her resignation in view of her undeclared conflict of interest. The mayor resisted this call and the PN has initiated action against her before its ethics and disciplinary commission.
Donations may be made here: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/naxxar-appeal-against-high-rise?fbclid=IwAR2pH2tz0MaNdvTnNWldl-ZPhxnhHOnF5ApJzxO-YNtddZmXkTayBMwHunM#/