ODZ old people’s home proposed on Għarb farmland

An old people’s home is being proposed on a 5300 sq.m plot of agricultural land sprawling from the edge of the development zone  along Triq il-Blat in to the surrounding ODZ fields in an area known as il-Gidi in the small Gozitan village of Gharb.

The proposed development consisting of 94 rooms as well as outside and inside pools, a gym, clinics and a chapel is being proposed by  Emmanuel Joseph Farrugia, a property developer and  owner of Prime Care Limited which currently runs St Elizabeth Home in Rabat, Malta.

This represents a third attempt by the Farrugia family to develop the site as an old people’s home.

The first attempt dates back to 1994 and was rejected by the Planning Authority in 1996.  The decision was confirmed by an appeal’s tribunal in 2001 which concluded that the development constituted an urban sprawl in the ODZ.  Another application was presented in 2008 only to be withdrawn 10 years later.

As proposed the project consists of an underground parking level which also includes a mortuary, six levels of rooms and a dining area on the seventh level. Due to the levelling of the site, five of the seven proposed levels will be located below street level.  In fact the outside pool is being proposed in one of the ‘basement’ levels.

The details of the application presented in February were only published on the Planning Authority’s public information system last week as previously the application was deemed to be incomplete.

But the Environment and Resources Authority has already warned that home including other ancillary interventions will be encroaching significantly beyond the development zone boundary. “The proposal would result in take-up of open rural land for the purpose of introduction of an urban-type land use on a site which is characterised by arable fields”

Moreover the project will contribute to an urban sprawl which would result in adverse impact on the rural landscape.

The PA’s advisory panel on agricultural issues is also objecting by saying that it objects in principle to any proposal in rural areas which is not contemplated in the rural policy and which is not for agricultural purpose.

The Strategic Plan for the Environment and Development allows the development of elderly homes and health facilities in the ODZ but only if developers had previously considered other sites within the development zone or in already committed areas.  Developers are also obliged to publish a site selection study showing why other sites in built up areas were excluded.  So far only one residential home has been approved under this policy, namely the Golden Care home developed by GAP Limited in Naxxar.