A developer’s plan to build 158 apartments spread across three blocks in Birżebbuġa has attracted a chorus of objections, over fears the project will choke the neighbourhood of any open space and destroy a heritage chamber.
Anton Camilleri, known as tal-Franċiz, is seeking to develop the site bordering Triq il-Barrieri and Triq il-Kan. Karm Bugelli into a complex of apartments and garages.
The Planning Commission has already approved the proposal (PA 04468/20) in principle, granting it an outline permit in 2021. Heritage NGO Din L-Art Ħelwa is appealing that permit, with the case currently under review by the planning appeals tribunal.
Through a new planning application, PA/04406/20, the developer is seeking to execute those plans.
DLH is calling on the public to object to these plans, which they say will lead to the “total destruction” of a rock-cut chamber and network of WWII shelters discovered on the site. The deadline for representations against the proposal closes on Friday.
Objectors say the developer misused a planning provision to bypass open space restrictions, applying a provision intended for small developments to a massive one.
The area, they continued, falls within the remit of a development brief for Ghirghien, which explicitly states that 20 per cent of land must remain open to the public and restricts developments to four-storey heights.
That is not the case in this development, which would add seven- and eight-storey blocks to the neighbourhood – something the Birżebbuġa local council flagged to the PA when it objected to the proposal back in July 2020.
Din L-Art Ħelwa and other objectors maintain that the 2021 outline permit was granted by an “unjustifiable” interpretation of a policy intended to allow small sites to bypass open space requirements by paying a €20 per square metre fee.
Camilleri was allowed to apply that proviso in this case – something objectors argue is not how it is meant to be applied.
“Such an interpretation only served to benefit the developer, whose personal profits were prioritised over the need to safeguard heritage and provide the public with open space,” Din L-Art Ħelwa said.
Objectors also note that Camilleri has already illegally demolished an adjacent site, destroying century-old graffitti at the rock-cut chamber’s entrance in the process. The developer has filed a separate planning application seeking to sanction those works.
While the Superintendence of Cultural Heritage has expressed concern about those works, saying they were illegal and “may have impacted any potential discoveries on site”, it is less worried about the risk of the rock-cut chamber being destroyed.
The chamber, the SCH says, is “not located within the confines” of the application. Many of its concerns about the project “have been addressed”, the watchdog has told the PA.