Small mercies: developers ‘revise’ plans for Naxxar’s Pjazza Ċelsi

Changes have been made to ameliorate the design of a massive five-storey block of 72 apartments on Naxxar’s quaint Pjazza Ċelsi, by the former trade fair building.

But as re-proposed, after being sent back to the drawing board by the Planning Authority board, the project will still drastically alter views of the village core from the former trade fair area, as confirmed by the latest set of photomontages presented last week.

The plans were presented after in January the PA board sent back the proposed five-storey plans to the drawing board.

The only significant change in photomontages of the development is the improved transition between an existing old farmhouse, and one of the blank party walls created by the building. No changes have been made to the height of the new building.

The new plans represent a slightly better transition to the urban conservation area and include more planters, a different colour scheme and a redesign of the balconies and apertures.

But there is little change in the overall impact of the project on Naxxar’s townscape.

The development, proposed by Charles Camilleri, consists of five storeys over a 3,141sq.m open field by Pjazza Celsi, just 150m away from the historic Palazzo Parisio.

The latest changes are being recommended for approval by the case officer.

In January the PA board had expressed their concern on its impact on Naxxar’s urban conservation area. NGO representative Anick Bonello warned that such projects were creating “fortifications enclosing our towns and villages changing the skyline forever.”

Present view from Trade fair carpark

Photomontage of development as proposed now

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 developers 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, and recommending a decrease in volume to minimise the impact on the vernacular buildings in the narrow streets of the UCA.

The main change 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.

During the meeting 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 the case officer’s report, 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 application for the nine-storey high-rise in the trade fair carpark has now been withdrawn but a new application the details of which are still not available to the public has been presented.

Naxxar mayor Anne Marie Muscat Fenech Adami, who objected to the visual impact of the apartment block in Pjazza Ċelsi, 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.