The Planning Authority has turned down a permit application for a large commercial development in one of the narrowest streets of St Julian’s core.
The Planning Commision board, which considered the application, cited concerns that aspects of the excavation for the project did not adhere to policy and that the development was not in keeping with the rest of the character of the area.
The developers sought to build 57 apartments, shops and offices in a disused plot of land between St Elias Street and Birkirkara Hill.
The developer had proposed joining the two streets with a pedestrianised road, in the process seeking to demolish a building believed to be the oldest in St Julian’s.
In an intervention during the hearing, Flimkien għal Ambjent Aħjar coordinator Astrid Vella said that apart from running counter to several policies and seeking to bypass required studies through piecemeal applications, the development would run through a core section of St Julian’s where buildings with heritage value had remained untouched.
“Are we to ruin that today?” Vella said.
In an impassioned plea, St Julian’s mayor Albert Buttigieg told the commission that St Julian’s residents have had to contend with commercial developments chipping away at the last remaining spaces in the village and that every commercial application that was accepted in the village core was a message to residents that they should pack up and leave if they didn’t like it.
“This is the last part of St Julian’s that can still be called the core village,” Buttigieg said.
“We cannot keep putting residents last and stretching planning policy where it suits us. It is literally reducing our quality of life.”
Buttigieg said that many life-long residents of the village, now in their twilight years, were suffering at the hands of constant development upheaval, noise and pollution from frequent construction in the area.
We don’t recognize our village anymore. If mistakes were made in the past then we cannot keep repeating them- Mayor
“We don’t recognize our village anymore. If mistakes were made in the past then we cannot keep repeating them.”
Planning Commission chair Martin Camilleri said the project in its current form was undesirable as it went against a number of planning policies and did not fit the character of the surrounding area.
Camilleri also raised concern that the excavation plans had been opposed by the Superintendence of Cultural Heritage.
The commission voted unanimously to refuse permission.
In reaction, Astrid Vella thanked the commission for their decision and called it a win for heritage protection.
“We are hugely appreciative of the planning commissions decision to not only be guided by existing regulation but also to make a priory of the heritage value of the area and the interests of the residents,” Vella said.
“FAA along with residents and Mayor Albert Buttigieg have been fighting this case doggedly for over two years, therefore the outcome is not only gratifying but should encourage other residents opposing other abusive development that there is hope to see the tide turning in favour of protection of Malta’s heritage and quality of life.”