Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1475799
NEWS 7 maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 10 AUGUST 2022 The cultural heritage watchdog warned that the development's "considerable heights and vol- umes" will be overbearing on the scheduled gardens of Villa Bonici. The development is being pro- posed by hotelier and Malta De- velopers Association President Michael Stivala instead of a di- lapidated vernacular building and an adjacent field that sepa- rates the lower and higher part of Parisio street. The architect of the project is Maria Grazia Schembri, who also chairs the state appoint- ed Building and Construction Agency. In June, the Planning Author- ity had approved Stivala's appli- cation to 'sanction' rock excava- tion works and use of part of the site earmarked for the hotel, as a temporary parking facility. The SCH had initially warned that the unauthorized clearing and subsequent excavations and rock-cutting had preju- diced the stability of the garden wall which is an integral part of the scheduled Villa Bonici and had strongly objected to the sanctioning. But subsequently the same Superintendence had issued its clearance after the developer presented a works method state- ment proposing measures for the consolidation and stabilisa- tion of the rock section underly- ing the garden wall. When issuing clearance for these works, the SCH reiterated its concern about unauthorised works that had "demolished and cleared away a walled garden" next to the old house. "This unauthorised demolition of the garden prejudices the cul- tural heritage value of the sur- viving house, which is currently subject to the application for the redevelopment of the site," the Superintendence warned. However, the Superintendence still remains favourable "to ef- forts towards the recreation or reconstruction of this garden, and the recreation of its link to the surviving house". The SCH concluded that it had no objection for the use of the site as a carpark for three years, following which the original gar- den should be "restored back and recreated" unless the site is redeveloped into a hotel. In that case the SCH is insisting that any permit should take "cognisance of the cultural heritage value of the site and its integration with the proposed development after discussion and agreement with the Superintendence". In 2017, the PA had approved an application by Stivala himself, to remove a schemed stairway originally proposed in 1961 that had been planned to link the up- per and lower parts of Parisio Street, and rezone the area as a residential one. The permit still envisaged a pe- destrian link between lower and upper Parisio Street which was to be developed at the develop- ers' expense. The staircase has now been reincluded in the lat- est visuals of the project.