Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1050749
NEWS 5 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 11 NOVEMBER 2018 JAMES DEBONO THE former Trade Fair grounds in Naxxar are the subject of a new development request, for a 113-apartment block built over eight floors on the site of the car park. The application foresees the excavation of a three-level basement car park that will include a 1,400sq.m super- market. Offices are also being pro- posed on the first floor of the development, while shops are proposed along a new central square. The development is being proposed by SPTT Properties Limited, a company formed this year by various commer- cial groups. They include Dutch business group Wygron Beheer, Malta property group Belair, hotel- ier Ian Decesare's Sonnet Inv, Ab Initio Limited, JND prop- erties, L.A. Developments, J&J Holdings, IN Space, as well as other independent property owners and also legal consult- ants. The same area had once been identified for a 73-apartment block and 29 maisonettes back in 2004 by the company Fairs & Exhibitions Ltd. The development was never approved. The rest of the area, part- ly owned by Sciclunas Es- tates, is being earmarked for a 500-apartment and office complex in several apart- ment blocks ranging from two-storey housing to eight- story towers. Residents have opposed this project arguing that this will aggravate traffic problems and ruin one of the few open spaces in the local- ity. The area is presently cov- ered by "open fields, a football pitch and a parking area" adja- cent to the former Trade Fair complex, which is owned by Sciclunas Estates and abuts on the grounds of Palazzo Pari- sio, a palazzo once used as the residence of the Marquis John Scicluna. The local plan approved in the year 2006 states that the area can be developed as housing units. In 2017 the PA approved de- velopment parameters for the site setting a building height limitation of 17.5m: this sug- gests that in the latest applica- tion the applicant is resorting to the Floor Area Ratio mech- anism which allows the de- veloper to surpass the height limitation envisaged in the lo- cal plan in return for creating more open spaces. Recently an application fore- seeing a new road system was proposed to serve "potential residential development" on a 12,031sq.m site located north and east of the Trade Fair grounds and to the west by Triq Santa Marija. Naxxar braced for eight-storey high residential block Open space at former Trade Fair grounds now faces second application for tower apartment block