Planning Authority sends Naxxar 72-apartment block back to drawing board

The Planning Authority board has sent plans for a five-storey block in Naxxar back to the drawing board after the majority expressed their concern on its impact on Naxxar’s urban conservation area.

The development proposed by Charles Camilleri consisted of a five-storey development of 72 apartments in a 3,141sq.m open field by Naxxar’s Pjazza Celsi, right by the former trade fair grounds and 150m away from the historic Palazzo Parisio.

NGO representative Anick Bonello warned that such projects were creating “fortifications which are enclosing our towns and villages changing the skyline forever.”

PA Chairman Vince Cassar said he would like more greenery introduced in the development and a more sensitive design which respects the context. Cassar then asked the whether they were willing to make changes to address these concerns. Faced with the likely refusal of the project as proposed, the developers accepted Cassar’s proposal. 

It was a zoning application approved in 2017 which set a building height of 17.5m in this area of Naxxar, paving the way for this and other similar developments in the area. 

But the Superintendence for Cultural Heritage and the PA’s Design Advisory Committee objected to Camilleri’s development as proposed, claiming that it will have a negative impact on the UCA, recommending a decrease in volume to minimise the impact on the vernacular buildings in the narrow streets of the UCA.

The main change made to address these concerns was a change in the colour of the building fronting the UCA.

The project architect pointed out that the facade of the building in the small part fronting the UCA will be two storeys, rising to five on the rest of the site.

Board members Vince Cassar, Victor Axiak, Martin Camilleri, Annick Bonello and Gilmore Camilleri expressed their concern that the Superintendence for Cultural Heritage and the DAC had not reviewed the latest plans and called for a better transition to the UCA.

But PA executive chairman Martin Saliba insisted that the planning directorate had done everything possible to minimise the project’s visual impact in its discussions with the developer. “We cannot tell the applicant that he cannot build... We can mitigate the impacts but we need to strike a balance and that is what we have been doing...”

The development was 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.

Architect Tara Cassar from Din l-Art Helwa disagreed, insisting that the project will negatively impact on the urban conservation area through the creation of a blank wall. She pointed out that painting the wall brown as proposed did not address the problem created by the overbearing massing of the building.

Naxxar mayor Anne Marie Muscat Fenech Adami, who objected to the visual impact of the development, also lamented the lack of a traffic impact studies. The developers insisted that the project did not warrant such studies because it fell below the legal thresholds for projects requiring such studies.

The mayor replied that the fact that this was one of many projects proposed in the area increased the need for such studies. 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.”

In November, the board had also postponed a decision on the 9-storey development after board chairman Vince Cassar expressed concern at its visual impact. No date has been yet announced for the approval of the nine-storey development proposed by Jean Borg in the trade fair car park.