Sacred Heart residents fear domino effect of over-development

\The Superintendence for Cultural Heritage has added its voice to that of residents by shooting down plans to demolish Casa Rohan and Casa Cottoner, two British colonial style, terraced houses in Sacred Heart Avenue in St Julian’s.

The application by Justin Zammit Tabona, owner of the Xara Palace boutique hotel in Mdina, is to retain the townhouses’ façades and add four overlying storeys for a 17-apartment block, pools at ground and roof level, a roof garden and three parking levels for 36 cars.

The SCH warned that the intensity of development will have “a massive and negative impact on the historical fabric and the legibility of the architecture of these houses and their gardens”.

The site is merely 25m from the Sacred Heart Convent, which has already been proposed for scheduling by the SCH in recognition of its architectural and historical value.

If the Planning Authority accepts the SCH recommendation to schedule the convent, any development carried in the buffer zone of the convent would have to respect its context. “As the property is within the buffer zone of properties that are being studied for scheduling, a design which is acceptable within a scheduled property buffer zone needs to be produced,” the SCH said.

The five townhouses are typical of British colonial architecture dating to the 1920s and 1930 and are characterised by colonnaded porches, similar to a row of houses at Gwardamangia Hill in Pietà, which houses were scheduled as Grade 2. The back gardens of the houses include a number of mature trees and constitute a green enclave.

Although rejected by the Planning Authority in 2012 due to the “excessive” nature of the development resulting in the “over-development of the site”, this decision was twice overturned by an appeals tribunal in 2012 and 2018.

The law courts revoked the first decision of the appeals tribunal, allowing the development subject to a number of conditions two years later. Subsequently, in May 2018 the PA’s Environment and Planning Review Tribunal issued new guidelines for development on this site.

These conditions included the retention of the existing façade and building alignment, a design which respects the architectural features of the existing façade and that the building depth for all levels, including the basement level, shall not extend more than 25m from the road alignment.

The development was also limited to four floors and an underlying basement above road level.

The properties in question contain significant architectural features, especially in terms of its entrance hall and main staircase that should be retained and integrated into the proposal.

Residents fear the approval of this application will set in motion a ‘domino effect’ that would impact upon three other outstanding colonial houses located in the same street.