Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1448619
11 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 6 FEBRUARY 2022 NEWS CALL FOR TENDER ERDF.05.144- Conserving, protecting and promoting the Porto Salvo and St. Dominic Basilica in Valletta Tender documents may be obtained by sending an email on: portosalvofoundation@gmail.com Interested bidders are to submit their SEALED TENDERS by 14th March 2022 PSSDF.03.2022- TENDER FOR THE FLOORING OF PORTO SALVO AND ST DOMINIC BASILICA, VALLETTA IN AN ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY MANNER JAMES DEBONO A residential and road develop- ment on a 3,400sq.m agricultur- al plot at Nigret, in Żurrieq, will be decided upon on Tuesday by the Planning Authority's Execu- tive Council. A PA case officer is recom- mending approval for construc- tion magnate Anton Camilleri's rezoning of the area, to develop it into a five-storey residential block with a new road. But the road will bisect a rural farmhouse and eliminate a ru- ral passageway, deemed to have heritage value by the Superin- tendence for Cultural Heritage (SCH). The decision was postponed in November 2021, to allow time for the PA's planning directorate to consult the Superintendence for Cultural Heritage on the her- itage value of a mysterious oval structure. While accepting the removal of an outer room and that of the oval structure, the SCH insisted on a redesign of the proposed road to minimise the damage on the vernacular building. The SCH accepted the demo- lition of an "outer room" of the vernacular farmhouse, which despite having "cultural value" was considered an accretion that can be removed to form the new road, but on payment of a €25,000 planning gain to mit- igate "the loss of historic fabric and the truncation of the space delineating the original farming complex". The SCH dismissed claims that the oval structure could signify the presence of a medieval struc- ture or domestic use of the site in question, finding no such ev- idence. But the watchdog called for a redesign of the road plans to safeguard the rest of the farm- house complex, which it consid- ers "a good example of vernacu- lar architecture." The case officer had already excluded a redesign of the pro- posed road arguing that since the farmhouse is not scheduled, "adequate road design outweighs the retention of parts of an exist- ing rural building, passageway and rubble wall". The case officer noted that the proposed boundary road is a part of a ring road being formed around the eastern and southern periphery of Zurrieq through various zoning applications, and that the redesign of the road as requested by the SCH would negatively impact the road lay- out due to the introduction of kinks and curves. The same argument was made in the November meeting by Camilleri's architect – the La- bour Party deputy leader Daniel Jose Micallef. During the meeting in which Environment and Resources Au- thority representative Michelle Piccinino noted that the SCH has requested a redesign, Mi- callef said the redesign "would disrupt the continuity of the street". Micallef argued that the pro- posed road is in line with other roads already approved in other zoning requests for a 'continui- ty road', with the PA's planning directorate saying "the need for an adequate road design out- weighs the retention of the af- fected parts of the existing rural building and passageway/rubble wall". The case officer overruled the SCH's concern on the proposed height of the development: he said the site is at the edge of Żurrieq, fronting the 'outside development' zone (ODZ), and therefore called for a transition between the ODZ and the ur- ban area; and to ensure the new buildings do not impact on the village skyline, especially when viewed from the Wardija area, which lies on high ground. The case officer claimed the 10.4m road, which is inside de- velopment zones, should create a "suitable transition" between the ODZ and urban area. n-Nigret in Zurrieq was add- ed to development zones in the infamous extension of develop- ment zones carried out in 2006. But as recently decreed by the law courts in a sentence which confirmed the legality of the ex- tension of boundaries, approval of requests for development on such sites is not automatic, es- pecially when development im- pacted on agricultural land and archaeological sites. The judge highlighted that each area released for develop- ment be subjected to a 'plan- ning control application' that is open to objections. The judge observed that requests for devel- opment had in fact been refused in areas of Mosta and Ta' Brag at Mellieħa, where objections had been raised. The court said owners who truly had the environmental and historical value of such areas at heart, and "not merely the de- preciation in value of their prop- erty," should "make good use of legal tools to register their objec- tions." 'New road outweighs heritage' PA case officer says new road outweighs heritage concerns from heritage watchdog, which wants redesign of road bisecting historic farmhouse