Plans for a century-old farmhouse in Sannat to be demolished and replaced by a three-storey apartment block have been dealt a blow after the Planning Directorate recommended the application for refusal.
The development in Triq ta’ Ċenċ, within the Urban Conservation Area, faces staunch opposition from the Sannat local council, residents and NGOs, while the Superintendence for Cultural Heritage has also objected.
The plans, which include 16 apartments taking up the existing 400 square metre garden of the traditional farmhouse as well as the destruction of a 20-metre stretch of rubble wall, are scheduled to be decided by the Planning Authority on August 6.
However, the Planning Directorate case officer has now recommended that the application be rejected on the basis that the farmhouse “includes vernacular architecture and multiple traditional architectural elements which warrant its preservation”. The case officer concluded that the proposed apartment block was incompatible with the urban design and environmental characteristics of the surrounding UCA and that the proposed height went against planning policy which aimed to protect traditional urban skylines.
To overturn this recommendation would result in a failure to understand the entire basis of Urban Conservation Areas
The negative recommendation can still be overturned by the PA board.
In submissions to the PA, the Sannat local council endorsed the case officer’s conclusions, adding that approving the demolition would create a dangerous precedent with respect to the proposed demolition of other vernacular buildings within the UCA. Architect Joanna Spiteri Staines from Openwork Studio, who has spearheaded a campaign against the project, also backed up the case officer’s report.
She added that planning policy for Gozo specifically aimed to protect “the Gozitan lifestyle, the island’s environment, resources, culture and identity”.
The application, she said, sought to replace a “historic and aesthetically pleasing vernacular building” with a “very poor architectural proposal of sub-standard residential units” which would be out of scale with its surroundings.
“To overturn this recommendation would result in a failure to understand the entire basis of Urban Conservation Areas,” she said.
The Sannat farmhouse is believed to date back to 1926, as evidenced by an inscription on its first floor.
However, its value does not only come from its age but also from the fact that it was built from recycled blocks which appear to have come from a British semaphore tower that could have once stood in Sannat.