Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1019057
8 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 26 AUGUST 2018 NEWS JAMES DEBONO DESIGN changes for a 125-room hotel in Marsax- lokk will still undermine the character of the traditional fishing village, Environment and Resources Authority has warned. The hotel will replace the Hunters' Tower restaurant, at a point that lies outside devel- opment zones in the vicinity of il-Maghluq marshland. Architects Bencini & Associ- ates made a number of chang- es to the proposed building through the use of arches and materials deemed more con- gruent with the surrounding building fabric – the earlier design made a more extensive use of glass. The latest plans were pre- sented following reservations from the PA's design advisory council, which advises the Planning Authority on de- sign issues: it had said it was mainly concerned with "the massing of the proposal" and recommended that the pro- ject be more in "keeping with the vernacular context of the Marsaxlokk seafront". The developers' own con- sultants in the updated envi- ronment impact assessment have noted that the changes are "welcome" but not "sig- nificant" and that the "impacts resulting from the mass of the building are still evident". In its own final report on the hotel, the Environment and Resources Authority (ERA) still contends that together with other modern develop- ments in the area the new hotel "will undermine the traditional elements that dis- tinguish the character of the Marsaxlokk bay area from other areas in the Maltese Is- lands." Despite these negative im- pacts, the latest design was considered "more sympathetic to the traditional buildings lining the seafront in the im- mediate vicinity of the site and which fall within the Urban Conservation area of Marsax- lokk". But the ERA said that the rear and side elevations "will intrude upon and jar with the surrounding rural landscape". Despite its concerns the ERA is not objecting to the develop- ment, because it does not im- pinge negatively on the nearby marshland of il-Maghluq. Environmental impact stud- ies have concluded that the hotel is unlikely to have en- vironmentally significant im- pacts on the marshland and will not result in the loss of EU-protected habitats. The ERA proposed a number of conditions that include lim- its on excavation, as well as on noise and light emissions. The hotel proposal was the result of a development brief for the Marsaxlokk inner har- bour proposed back in Sep- tember 2013, which sets out the parameters for the area's regeneration to improve tour- ism while complementing its environmental value. In 1998 the PA rejected an application for a three-storey hotel on the site, proposed by former Labour minister John Dalli. Redesigned hotel still jars with traditional Marsaxlokk Less glass, more arches: hoteliers propose softer look for 125- room hotel at waterfront's edge in Marsaxlokk JAMES DEBONO THE Environment and Re- sources Authority has de- cried the lack of a national strategy on how to tackle the increased quantities of exca- vation waste from construc- tion projects. The ERA made its com- ments in a report on the proposed development of a commercial complex at Smart City, which will re- sult in the creation of a staggering 230,000 cubic metres of excavation waste. According to the project's environment impact assess- ment (EIA), this waste will be transported off-site to backfilled quarries or at a designated area off Xghajra, where construction waste is deposited at sea. But the ERA complained that such project-specific EIAs cannot assess the full cumulative impact of waste excavation at a national level. "EIAs have inherent limi- tations vis-à-vis the effec- tive resolution to this type of issue…. especially in the absence of strategic-level environmental parameters for the abatement of exca- vation waste generation," the ERA said. The authority called for the problem of con- struction waste to be con- sidered "proactively at more strategic level". The Smart City develop- ment will result in the ex- cavation of the site to sea level and the construction of mixed-use development consisting of an under- ground carpark on three levels, a commercial com- plex over two partly under- ground levels, an elevated residential plaza with com- munal pool and landscaping, and an overlying residential complex on eleven floors. Whilst expressing its res- ervations with regard to excavation waste, the ERA is not objecting to the pro- posed development due to the already-established commitments created by a permit issued for Smart City in 2008. The proposed site has al- ready been approved for use for retail and residential by virtue of the Smart City Master Plan, which was it- self subject to a separate EIA. This application proposes the increase in gross floor area from the approved 19,500sq.m to 110,881sq.m by transferring 28,000sq.m of residential floorspace and 6,700sq.m of commer- cial floorspace from other plots within the current approved master plan, to- gether with an additional 13,155sq.m of retail floor- space and 42,660sq.m of parking. 'Lack of strategy' for Malta's construction waste problem The hotel will replace the Hunters' Tower restaurant, at a point that lies outside development zones in the vicinity of il-Maghluq marshland