AD urges MEPA to refuse Portomaso lagoon extension

MEPA will tomorrow hold a public meeting on the development to extend the Portomaso residential complexes for the construction of a lagoon and new bungalows.

Michael Briguglio, AD Chairperson, said residents at Qaliet and Paceville in St Julian’s have been undergoing constant stress and discomfort due to overdevelopment in the area.

“The area is already overdeveloped especially due to the Portomaso development, which has been developed in excess of its original approval in 1995.”

The developers are proposing an extra 46 apartments on an artificial lagoon between Spinola road, the edge of the marina and the foreshore.

“This totally disregards the Environment Impact Assessment of the project which had called for protection of the area in question. The developers were responsible for the conservation of the two species (Wedgefoot Grass and Maltese Sea Camomile), one of which has already disappeared,” Briguglio said.

The last stretch of undeveloped land enclosed in the Portomaso project is set for the development of 46 apartments set on an artificial lagoon. 

The original permit for the Portomaso development had stipulated that the site should be preserved as an ecological site. But according to new plans, the development of the ‘ecological site’ will now see a lagoon with water passing directly beneath two-storey high apartments, in a way that residents will be able to swim directly to their property while having direct access to the lagoon.

The apartments will have glazed floors with views of the lagoon underneath.

The 46 apartments will occupy a built-up area of 3,783 square metres with a 1,930-square metre lagoon.

The lagoon will not be connected to the Portomaso Marina, as the quay will separate the two bodies of water, and neither will it have any direct connection to the sea.

The existing Portomaso site already includes 505 apartments, a 400-room hotel and a car park with 2,100 car spaces occupying a built-up area of 28,000 square metres.

One of the concerns expressed on the project is the presence of a historical entrenchment wall, which skirts the site. To protect the entrenchment wall during the construction phase a 2-metre high, hollow concrete brick wall will be built along the entire length of the wall. The space between the top of the brick wall and the entrenchment wall will be covered with a steel mesh to prevent debris being thrown into this space.

The Malta Environment and Planning Authority’s advisory nature panel is objecting to the project since one of the conditions in the permit for the Portomaso complex was the conservation of the ecological enclave in line with the Environment Impact Assessment.

“The ecological survey commissioned by the applicant also indicated the presence of species of flora and fauna with conservation value,” the panel said in its report.

On the other hand, MEPA’s advisory panel on cultural heritage welcomed the fact that the height of building was decreased from three to two floors, so the entrenchment wall will remain visible from the sea.

The committee also called on the developers to restore the entrenchment wall as a “planning gain” for the community.

The PDS states that all existing trees in the area will be either transplanted to a different and agreed location or removed, depending on their legal status.

The project will create 31,000 square metres of excavated material.

According to the developers the project will enhance the surroundings, “give the area more value and provide a unique setting which will be an exclusive development in the Mediterranean.”

Details on the project were givenfrom a project development statement presented to MEPA which has obliged the developers to submit new studies to update the original environment impact assessment carried out before 1995.