Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/890548
maltatoday SUNDAY 22 OCTOBER 2017 12 News JAMES DEBONO THE Planning Authority has turned down demands from ar- chitects and developers to extend a policy that is granting homes for the elderly located outside the development zone, two additional storeys. Retirement homes on the fringe of urban areas may discourage the elderly from going out and inter- act with the community, the PA has warned. But it will still be deciding on these demands on a case-by-case basis, leaving a window open for requests for ODZ extensions. The PA was replying to submis- sions by developers lobbying for a relaxation of building heights on nursery homes, a policy the au- thority hopes can increase accom- modation for old people inside ur- ban areas rather than outside. As recently as July the PA ap- proved a new ODZ home outside Gharghur, while others are pro- posed in Vittoriosa, Santa Lucija, Buskett, and also at the Mtarfa isolation hospital. Already the Strategic Plan for the Environment and Development opens a loophole for ODZ homes when "no feasible option exists within the development zone" – but extra heights are not allowed on the ODZ homes. Lobbying for the height relaxa- tions was architect Charles Bu- hagiar, a former Labour MP who now chairs the Building Industry Consultative Council, who argued that a hotel located outside de- Nursery from urban isolating The Planning Authority is defending a policy to allow two additional storeys on old people's homes, as a way of reducing the demand for nursery homes outside development zones