Anton Refalo’s wife gets ‘yoga hotel’ permit

A residential dwelling just outside Qala’s development boundary may be turned into a ‘yoga hotel’ after the Planning Authority gave its go ahead today.

The application for change of use was filed by Lina Refalo, the wife of former Gozo minister Anton Refalo.

The proposal does not include any extension of the existing building, except for a new basement level. The hotel will specialise in yoga meditation and culinary services.

The site overlooks the picturesque Daħlet Qorrot Bay and can be accessed through the rural road Triq ta’ Ġulju.

It is located on land designated as an area of high landscape value for its rural setting, and an area of ecological importance.

The Environment and Resources Authority had objected to the introduction of a new tourist accommodation facility in the rural landscape.

“Although the site is committed with development, the use proposed will indirectly increase the impact on the area in terms of traffic,” ERA cautioned.

It also warned that the  permit would set an “undesirable precedent” for similar future development “which would cumulatively lead to further adverse impacts on the overall state of the wider context”.

But the planning directorate disagreed noting that the proposal did not include any additional extensions to what is already approved on the site and will not result in any additional land take-up.  It also claimed that in certain cases the redevelopment of a permitted building that was developed “unsympathetically in the countryside may be considered as a gain if it is properly redeveloped”.

The Superintendence for Cultural Heritage gave its go ahead to the development.

The site had been subject to two enforcement orders in the past two decades. These irregularities were regularised by two successful applications to sanction additions which had been carried out without a permit.

Piecemeal development on the 2,000sq.m. site, including various additions to the existing farmhouse, a swimming pool approved in 2004, and extensive landscaping works carried out between 1998 and 2018, have drastically changed the topography of the site as can be confirmed by a comparison of aerial photos taken by the Planning Authority.

In 2009, the PA justified the regularisation of a reservoir and landscaping works as these were in line with the landscaping layout already approved in the previous applications, while the reservoir was deemed acceptable as it complimented the use of the garden.

All applications presented up to 2004 had been presented by Anton Refalo, who was already a Labour MP at the time. But all applications presented on the site after 2009 were presented by his wife Lina.

The latest application foresees excavations beneath the farmhouse to accommodate hotel rooms and ancillary services. The 2014 rural policy allows the development of basement levels and facilitates a change of use of legal establishments.