Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1262267
maltatoday | SUNDAY • 21 JUNE 2020 NEWS 8 Developers claim 7-floor Lija home 'improves skyline' JAMES DEBONO A massive seven-storey home for the elderly in Lija will offer a "significant opportunity for visual and architec- tural gain" by providing "legibility within the area it is located", a study by its project architect claims. The home, on the site of the former Moulin d'Or wedding hall, is already being constructed after the Planning Authority issued three different per- mits that increased the number of rooms from the original 51 to 93. The latest application for two new floors will increase rooms to 127 – a text-book case of piecemeal develop- ment. Developers insist this will make the project economically feasible. Unlike Environmental Impact As- sessments (EIAs), no guidelines exist to regulate visual impact studies. In this case, the study carried out by ar- chitect Samuel Formosa has been the subject of four different planning ap- plications. Formosa insists that designing inter- esting corner schemes require flexi- bility on the 2015 development guide- lines. The study's photomontages evaluate the retirement home's relationship within the existing streetscape, on the assumption that the adjacent buildings are developed to their height limits as laid down by the local plan: 17.5m or four floors and penthouse. "Once the adjacent buildings are constructed, the visual impact of the development in question upon the surroundings will be minimal," Formosa argues. Since the site lies within an urban area, the architect argues that the de- velopment cannot be perceived from long distance views. Formosa concludes that the addi- tional two floors, one of which is re- ceded, will not create an adverse visual impact on the surrounding built envi- ronment, but an adequate transition from existing building heights. But conservationist NGO Din l-Art Helwa has strongly reiterated its ob- jection, insisting it is evident the de- velopment will have a negative impact on the character of Lija and its adja- cent Urban Conservation Area and town centre. "The extension will re- sult in a built volume that is complete- ly out of place with the surrounding UCA," DLH said. Developers Joe Xuereb Investments Ltd were originally granted a permit in 2014 for a four-storey, 51-room home for the elderly, one storey re- ceded, in a design that blended well with the surrounding area. The case officer report recommended approval because developers had "downscaled" their proposal to reduce impact on the residential amenity of the area. But in 2016, a new intermediate floor with an additional seven rooms was approved, increasing the num- ber of potential residents to 113. And in 2019, the PA green-lit another 34 rooms through an extension of the ap- proved floors, with the 'sanctioning' of illegal excavation. Each application to increase the size of the home was presented within months of the approval of the previ- ous one. Moreover, each piecemeal change had the blessing of the Su- perintendence for Cultural Heritage, which simply noted that the proposed massing "should not negatively im- pact on the context of the Urban Con- servation Area" and that blank walls overlooking the UCA should not be permitted. As proposed in the latest application, the old people's home will include a ground floor, the intermediate floor approved in 2016, four full floors and a new receded floor. A policy approved in 2017 permits an additional two floors for old people's homes over and above height limitations in urban con- servation areas. A history of piecemeal development reveals strategy to obtain permits one storey at a time