Dingli up in arms over re-proposed five-storey development

The village of Dingli is once again up in arms against a proposed five-storey development located at the entrance of the quaint locality.

In the face of public pressure last year, plans to develop a five-storey development on Triq il-Kbira in Dingli were changed to a more modest three-storey development. But now the developer has presented a new application to add a penthouse level and an additional storey over what has been already approved.

The plans were changed after the Superintendence for Cultural Heritage had objected to the development in view of the scale and intensity of the development immediately outside the Urban Conservation Area.

But unfazed by the COVID-19 pandemic, nearly a hundred residents have now presented objections, many of them describing the development as a monstrosity which would ruin their locality.

One of the objectors pointed out that due to the nature of the slope and lower ground from which the Dingli entrance is viewed, the visual impact of the development will be inevitable negative. “Through its massive nature, the application will disfigure the existing skyline of the entrance towards Dingli.”

The proposed development is situated in the vicinity of a scheduled, vernacular building and if approved will generate a huge blank wall at the very entrance of the village. Since the other houses in the village core fall inside the UCA, no other property is developed to this height, leaving this proposed development as a “stand-alone modern structure at the entrance of an old village.”

The Dingli local council had objected to the development. Councillors David Vassallo and Lawyer Rachel Powell are urging residents to send their objections to the planning application.