PA: Naxxar block ‘positive transition’ for unapproved nine-storey tower

A brutish five-storey development of 72 apartments in an open field by Naxxar’s Pjazza Celsi, right by the former trade fair grounds, is being treated as a “positive development” by the Planning Authority’s case officers.

The development is being considered as a “positive development of the urban fabric” in a report endorsed by the PA’s planning directorate, claiming the apartment complex will be “an adequate transition” between Naxxar’s urban conservation area (UCA), and an as-yet unapproved nine-storey development adjacent to it which is stoking controversy.

The proposed development is located 150m away from the historic Palazzo Parisio.

Mistakenly, the case officer’s report written in October 2020, right before a PA meeting in November to postpone a decision on the 9-storey development, claims this development has already been approved. So the case officer is using it as a pretext for the development in Pjazza Celsi, which is now being recommended for approval.

In November, the board postponed a decision on the 9-storey development after board chairman Vince Cassar expressed concern at its visual impact. There is popular outrage at the development.

The PA board will now be taking a final decision on the development proposed by developer Charles Camilleri in Pjazza Celsi on 21 January. No date has been yet announced for the approval of the nine-storey development proposed by Jean Borg in the trade fair car park.

It was the PA’s planning commission which passed the buck onto the higher PA board in November, due to the “scale of the project” proposed by Camilleri and its vicinity to the 9-storey development, on which the board still has to take a decision.

The Superintendence for Cultural Heritage is objecting to Camilleri’s development as proposed, claiming that it will have a negative impact on the UCA and has recommended a decrease in its volume to minimise the impact on the vernacular buildings in the narrow streets of the UCA.

But while confirming that the project will have a visual impact on the UCA, the case officer insists that this is “mitigated” by “the potential future development of the buildings within the area”.

The case officer also claimed the proposed facades are considered to blend with the “the existing streetscape within which the site is located.”