Smart supermarket wants expanded car park

The car park for Smart supermarket, located on what once was the garden of a now demolished modernist villa, will expand over the area presently occupied by two dwellings and a yard enclosed behind an old characteristic wall.

Villa Moira was demolished together with the uprooting of 54 citrus trees through a 2019 ‘summary procedure’ in what was the first phase to develop a new commercial unit with overlying apartments.

With no details were presented on the replacement building, the commercial development was to be assessed in a subsequent application yet to be submitted.

So the newly vacant site was irregularly turned into a car park to service the Smart supermarket, and the Planning Authority later sanctioned its use in 2020.

The new car park was justified as a way to serve supermarket clients during construction works for the redevelopment of the supermarket, also approved by the PA in 2019. The permit envisages the phased demolition of the existing supermarket and its replacement by a new building with a five-storey car park and overlying supermarket, retail outlets and offices.

Now the owners want to demolish two more Naxxar Road dwellings to extend their surface car park, with a number of trees enclosed by an old characteristic wall to be uprooted. This will increase the car park’s size to over 2,300sq.m and increase capacity from 77 to 99 spaces.

Residents who spoke to this newspaper expressed concern on the piecemeal expansion of the car park, which they fear is intended to clear the way for the commercial development approved in 2019.