Mellieha nine-storey complex will affect neighbouring vistas, ERA warns

A Mellieha nine-floor complex for 121 apartments and a hotel will affect vistas from the Mizieb, Imbordin and Xemxija hamlets due to its location on Mellieha ridge.

Town’s End Mellieha Ltd is proposing the project on an open storage area that is adjacent to the former Belleview bakery, and is currently full of vehicles, bricks, large blocks and dumped construction waste. Gozitan developer Joseph Portelli is backing the project.

Permits for terraced houses were issued in the 1990s but these were never built. In 2015, the Lands Department issued a tender for the sale of the plots, for bids not less than €2.5 million for consideration.

While exempting the project from a full environment impact assessment, the Environment and Resources Authority said the nine-floor complex will impact the skyline since its neighbouring buildings were in line with the three-floor limit for the area.

The Height Limitation Adjustment Policy for Hotels, 2014, allows for a potential two additional floors, over and above the height permitted by the Local Plan, which would be translated into a 25m-height from the highest street level. But this policy does not apply to so called “ridge-edge sites” and “edge of development zone” sites as in this case.