Extend the Urban Conservation Areas | Patrick Calleja

The Gozo Regional Development Authority (GRDA) was set up in 2020 with a mission to formulate, streamline and help in the implementation of regional policies to ensure sustainable development.

Part of this mission is to strengthen Gozo’s voice amongst policy makers and other government bodies to ensure that policies, actions and projects are suitable for the specific nature of the Gozitan ecosystem.

GRDA’s voice must get louder. In November 2024, GRDA published a paper titled Proposal to Protect Terraced Houses Within Government Housing Estates. Despite the many positive suggestions prompted by this paper, perhaps not very surprisingly, it was side-lined and went largely unnoticed. Mario Borg, GRDA’s CEO is also a member of the Planning Authority’s Planning Board. He was the only board member, other than the NGO representative Romano Cassar, who had the spirit to vote against the development permit applications for the Fort Chambray project last December.

The distinctive urban character of Gozo is constantly being undermined by the indiscriminate construction of nondescript apartment blocks; Malta is already full of them. The paper highlights the urgency to preserve the island’s identity and its village heritage advocating for a contextual architectural and spatial design approach. As part of this approach, the GRDA has put forth a proposal aimed at safeguarding the terrace houses forming part of government housing estates from the 1970s through to the 1990s. The paper highlights the significance of these structures not only with regards to Gozo’s cultural and historical identity, but also to the architectural and spatial uniformity of the developments. The paper positively acknowledges the 2023 Court of Appeal sentence which revoked the development permission for a five-storey pencil block in the midst of a two-storey Home Ownership Scheme 1980’s terrace house development in Santa Lucija.

The GRDA contends that these housing schemes warrant specific recognition and protection akin to urban conservation areas. Their streetscapes and skylines are uniform and unobtrusive and respect the GRDA vision of Gozo as an Island of Villages. All the buildings are constructed with globigerina limestone and have similar proportions and heights.  Nearly 40% of the housing stock in Gozo are terrace houses whereas in Malta this figure is only 20%.

This valid proposal should be extended to all housing schemes including terrace house developments in Malta. Of course, this should have been done much earlier. There is no reason why the term ‘urban conservation area’ should be restricted to village cores or pre-1967 developments. The primary purpose of these areas is to preserve and enhance their unique character and heritage and to provide a framework to protect particular buildings, streetscapes, vistas and open spaces from inappropriate development. These low-density residential areas are consistently community focussed, often providing spaces that allow initiatives for residents to engage in maintaining community identity and social cohesion. The simple fact that they are low density dwelling units means that the residents are likely to recognise and acknowledge each other, thus facilitating more meaningful social interaction; invariably the immediate public surroundings become safer, more defensible and cared for.

The planning methods used over the last decades have failed to produce an amenable physical and urban environment, perhaps because urban design has been treated as if it were purely mechanical in nature. The social implications of the applied planning policies are hardly ever afforded any serious consideration by the authorities. The GRDA document quite rightly intimates that planning policies should serve to improve the communities’ quality of life and enhance their general wellbeing rather than solely regulating development without any contextual reference whatsoever.

The Planning Authority has continued to disregard this basic planning tenet which, incidentally, is key to their unheeded mission statement.  As a matter of fact, there is no planning; high density residential developments are being constructed at the expense of existing quality terrace housing schemes without any long-term spatial plan. Sadly, some terrace houses have been demolished, presumably with PA permission, and the sites abandoned, undeveloped plastered with ‘For Sale’ signs. These speculative exercises to ‘commit’ the sites, just in case policies are reversed, are unforgivably mocking of our society.

There have been various suggestions including from Din l-Art Ħelwa (DLĦ) to have buffer zones around urban conservation areas, effectively extending them. In a letter penned by architect and academic Prof. James Quentin Hughes to the DLĦ founder Judge Maurice Caruana Curran 60 years ago, he stated: “As your Island is so small, any careless, ill-thought new building can have a disastrous effect on the finely balanced environment, and it is as important to safeguard the surroundings of historic buildings as to preserve the buildings themselves.”

It’s not just historic buildings that need to be protected. Our urban conservation areas are being slowly and insensitively screened and marred by incongruent ribbon developments of nondescript apartment blocks located along their PA imposed borders. These borders are presently limited to the physical peripheries of village cores. The borders should be extended to limit the negative visual impact on the conservation areas and to allow a suitable and adequate spatial transition away from them. Village houses often end up with their once private gardens or courtyards being overlooked by apartment blocks constructed metres away; certainly not the way to encourage the rehabilitation of urban conservation areas.

The GRDA's proposal aims to safeguard the unique terrace houses developed under the Home Ownership Scheme by officially recognizing them as distinct areas within the Gozo and Comino Local Plan. Ultimately, the proposal reflects a proactive strategy to maintain Gozo’s rich cultural heritage.

The negative social and infrastructural implications of short-sighted terrace house re-developments are being overlooked or knowingly exchanged.

The social cohesion and community engagement within terrace house and urban conservation areas is undeniably evident and starkly contrasts with the social apathy manifested in the more recently developed high density residential areas.

All low-density dwelling units should be protected and treated as urban conservation areas with appropriate buffer zones around them.