Nine-storey commercial development proposed next to Wied Għomor bridge

Landowner Carmelo Borg has presented a zoning application seeking to change the designation of a 2,743sq.m plot of land in St Julian’s from public open space as envisaged in the local plan to permit residential and commercial development.

Plans submitted in the zoning application foresee 5,226sq.m of residential development, 3,048sq.m of retail development and 1,536 sq.m of office development. The development is being proposed in two separate blocks, one consisting of five floors and another one consisting of nine floors above Triq il-Baltiku.

500sq.m are allocated as a public pedestrian area.

Three underground levels of parking are also being proposed together with an underground sports complex and pool.

The site earmarked for the proposal is located besides the Mikiel Anton Vassalli Bridge, further uphill from the St Julian’s school in the road leading down to Spinola Bay. It is accessed through the road leading from the left hand side of Triq MA Vassalli at the north end of the Regional Road Tunnels.

The site used to form part of Wied Għomor valleyside prior to being cut off by the road junction design. The site is identified by the 2006 North Harbour Local Plan as a “public open space” and is safeguarded by the provisions of policy NHRL 01 which prohibits the loss of urban public open spaces.

The same land had been previously identified by TUM Invest Limited for a 24-storey hotel next to the Regional Road tunnel, following a promise of sale agreement with Borg, which was subsequently rescinded.

The Environment and Resources Authority had shot down the proposed high-rise hotel, insisting the development would be in breach of the local plan. ERA said the proposal would result in intensive development of “one of the few remaining green lungs in the area”. It had warned that the introduction of the proposed high-rise on the edge of the residential area would “contribute towards urban sprawl which would also increasingly dominate the underlying valley”.

The land has belonged to the Borg family for generations and part of it had been expropriated in the 1960s for the construction of Regional Road. Residents objecting to the latest zoning application warned that approval would exacerbate traffic problems in the area.