Smart City apartments facing Rinella get nine-metre reduction

The heights of new Smart City residential units directly facing the Rinella fort will be reduced from 14 to five metres in new amendments to plans last approved in 2009 while other coastline apartments will rise to 10 emtres.

Original plans approved in 2009 foresaw development rising to 14m on the entire stretch of coastline leading to Xghajra and 10m further inland.

The total number of units is also set to increase substantially, from 50 to 72, as a result of a reduction in the landscaped areas.

The Superintendence for Cultural Heritage has welcomed the latest plans noting the new proposed height of the villas has been reduced, thus “improving the line of sight of the fort toward the open seas”.  Moreover, villas originally proposed on the scheduled glacis have now been removed.

But the SCH is calling on the developers to ensure that the rifle ranges and a  beach defence post, along with military patrol paths linking the fort to the sea, are also protected.

Once completed, the Smart City developments will screen the Shoreline project. At the time of its approval, the Labour MP on the Planning Authority board, Clayton Bartolo, expressed concern on the full impact of the Smart City masterplan, which includes plots yet to be developed, including tracts of unspoilt land: “It is true that the Smart City project is foreseen in a legally binding masterplan but any concern expressed on the Shoreline project pales into insignificance when compared to the full extent of the Smart City development.”

His concern was motivated by photomontages showing the Shoreline project in relation to development, which still has to be approved in Smart City.