Labour councillor’s ODZ old people’s home slated for approval

The Planning Authority’s Development Management Directorate is recommending the approval of an ODZ home in Naxxar proposed by Marlon Brincat, a Labour councillor and minority leader in the Naxxar local council, arguing that the visual impact of the new meeting is “not significant” and will “respect the surrounding context”. 

The site of the proposed development is located outside the development boundaries right in close vicinity to the Tal-Laqx windmill and the Semaphore Tower.

The application proposes the demolition of a one-storey abandoned farm building with a footprint of 1,020sq.m and its replacement by a three-storey nursing home set on the same footprint but rising to 11 meters.

Labour councillor Marlon Brincat

The proposed facility shall consist of 60 beds spread over 47 rooms, over three levels above ground, together with a number of miscellaneous facilities.

The Environment and Resources Authority (ERA) had objected to the proposed development arguing that the proposal contributes to further urban development beyond the development zone boundary. 

Issues raised by ERA include the negative impact on the landscape character and visual amenity, light pollution and the increase in operational traffic, which would increase pressures on the currently undeveloped area beyond existing settlements of Naxxar and Ħal Għargħur.

Moreover, according to ERA photomontages of the proposed development confirm that it would detract from preserving the rural landscape character. The Design Advisory Committee, a panel advising the PA on the visual impact of proposed developments was also concerned about the visual impact on its surroundings.

However, the Development Management Directorate insisted that the impact of the building is not deemed to be significant.

Curiously it also emerges that the site selection exercise, which is a policy requirement for similar ODZ development, had been carried out by Marlon Brincat after presenting the application on the site in question.

The exercise had identified a short-list of four vacant land sites within the development zone but the site in question was still chosen as the most feasible one.

The development will also create a shortfall of parking spaces, providing 27 spaces instead of the required 31.

Transport Malta had initially expressed concerns on road safety issues related to the accessibility to and from the site, both from a driver and a pedestrian point of view. But subsequently the architect of the project proposed changes to Sqaq l-Imnieqa and its junction with Triq San Ġwann to address the concerns of Transport Malta.

These include the shifting the existing bollards along the centre line of Triq Għargħur and - the introduction of a wider footpath in the same road.

Since the development is located in the ODZ the developer will be expected to pay a planning gain of €61,900.

The proposed development will be located just 200 metres away from another nursing home approved in 2017 which is also located in the so-called ‘strategic open gap’ that lies between Naxxar and Għargħur.

The local plan prohibits any urban development, except for small scale utility infrastructure, and the area is also identified as an area of agricultural value, being surrounded by open agricultural land.  But the Strategic Plan for the Environment and Development included a loophole for health, educational and community facilities located in the ODZ but only if no alternatives are found within the development zone.

Marlon Brincat is an owner of the installations company CE Group, and a board member on the private-public Tech.MT, a promotional arm for MITA and the Chamber of Commerce for the national strategy on innovative technology.

The councillor had controversially backed Nationalist mayor Anne-Marie Muscat Fenech Adami during her apparent volte-face in supporting a controversial two-block high-rise on the former trade fair grounds.