Developers claim 7-floor Lija home 'improves skyline'

A massive seven-storey home for the elderly in Lija will offer a “significant opportunity for visual and architectural gain” by providing “legibility within the area it is located”, a study by its project architect claims.

The home, on the site of the former Moulin d’Or wedding hall, is already being constructed after the Planning Authority issued three different permits that increased the number of rooms from the original 51 to 93.

The latest application for two new floors will increase rooms to 127 – a text-book case of piecemeal development. Developers insist this will make the project economically feasible.

Unlike Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs), no guidelines exist to regulate visual impact studies. In this case, the study carried out by architect Samuel Formosa has been the subject of four different planning applications.

Formosa insists that designing interesting corner schemes require flexibility on the 2015 development guidelines.

The study’s photomontages evaluate the retirement home’s relationship within the existing streetscape, on the assumption that the adjacent buildings are developed to their height limits as laid down by the local plan: 17.5m or four floors and penthouse. “Once the adjacent buildings are constructed, the visual impact of the development in question upon the surroundings will be minimal,” Formosa argues.

Since the site lies within an urban area, the architect argues that the development cannot be perceived from long distance views.

Formosa concludes that the additional two floors, one of which is receded, will not create an adverse visual impact on the surrounding built environment, but an adequate transition from existing building heights.

But conservationist NGO Din l-Art Helwa has strongly reiterated its objection, insisting it is evident the development will have a negative impact on the character of Lija and its adjacent Urban Conservation Area and town centre. “The extension will result in a built volume that is completely out of place with the surrounding UCA,” DLH said.

Developers Joe Xuereb Investments Ltd were originally granted a permit in 2014 for a four-storey, 51-room home for the elderly, one storey receded, in a design that blended well with the surrounding area. The case officer report recommended approval because developers had “downscaled” their proposal to reduce impact on the residential amenity of the area.

But in 2016, a new intermediate floor with an additional seven rooms was approved, increasing the number of potential residents to 113. And in 2019, the PA green-lit another 34 rooms through an extension of the approved floors, with the ‘sanctioning’ of illegal excavation.

Each application to increase the size of the home was presented within months of the approval of the previous one. Moreover, each piecemeal change had the blessing of the Superintendence for Cultural Heritage, which simply noted that the proposed massing “should not negatively impact on the context of the Urban Conservation Area” and that blank walls overlooking the UCA should not be permitted.

As proposed in the latest application, the old people’s home will include a ground floor, the intermediate floor approved in 2016, four full floors and a new receded floor. A policy approved in 2017 permits an additional two floors for old people’s homes over and above height limitations in urban conservation areas.