Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/780138
maltatoday, WEDNESDAY, 1 FEBRUARY 2017 News 7 St Julians: Garden to make way for 36 dwellings JAMES DEBONO YET another residential development, this time catering for 36 units and pro- posed by Bilom Group has been approved in Triq Birkirkara in St Julians. Although the façade of the existing one storey town house will be retained, an ad- jacent garden with a depth of 23 metres will be obliterated. Protected trees in this garden will be replanted elsewhere. The six-storey development, which will have three levels of basement parking, will be highly visible from Balluta valley. It will consist of a multiple dwelling de- velopment having a minimum height of three f loors within the Urban Conser- vation Area, stepping up to a maximum height of five f loors and penthouse level, with underlying basement level parking in the area outside the UCA. Din l-Art Helwa had noted that the building lies in an area which is zoned as a four-f loor with semi-basement. The proposal is of a six-f loor building from street level, but appears as seven storeys from the valley beneath it. In the section of the site, which is situ- ated in UCA, the proposal retains simply the facade but the remainder of building is proposed to be demolished except for the main entrance hall, which will be dismantled and re-integrated into the proposed development. The existing town house which will now have two more storeys added on it was built on one f loor with basement level in a formal symmetrical style, gen- erally datable to the inter-war period, having a main entrance f lanked by two Doric columns and an overlying open balcony. Bilom is also awaiting a permit for the redevelopment of the Cloisters, a sched- uled building on nearby Mrabat road. The development was recommended for approval by the case officer. A decision by the Environment Planning Commis- sion was due last Friday but the case has now been handed over to the PA's Plan- ning Board, the authority's highest board. Riviera Hotel: ERA denounces history of 'piecemeal' applications THE Planning Authority board will be meeting tomorrow to decide on whether to allow the addition of an extra 53 rooms to the Riviera Hotel in Marfa, which already had a substantial extension approved in 2015. The changes will involve the creation of an additional fifth f loor. While the Planning Di- rectorate is recommending ap- proval of the latest application the Environment and Resources Authority is firmly opposing the piecemeal addition. In a memo issued on 19 Janu- ary, the ERA noted that the Riviera Hotel has been the sub- ject of 10 approved applications which have "progressively re- sulted in the further commit- ment and encroachment onto the surrounding rural land". In this way the 61-room hotel constructed in the 1960s grew to a 242-room hotel in 2001, and is now set to increase from the 293 rooms approved in 2015 to 346 rooms. The Planning Authority had exempted the previous exten- sion approved in 2015 from the need of an Environment Impact Assessment. But this exemption was con- ditional on "the strict contain- ment of the development so as to avoid further commitment of fresh land outside the develop- ment zone". The ERA contends that this condition was not respected be- cause the permit included the development of a car park on 2,143 square metres of undevel- oped land. The proposed 53 rooms in ad- dition to what was approved in 2015 will "intensif y the overall visual impact, which would be difficult to mitigate effectively", the ERA argues. In 2015 the hotel was allowed a recessed fifth f loor to mini- mise the visual impact, but this will change to a full-blown f loor if the application is approved. The Planning Directorate ar- gues that this will improve the design of the building by creat- ing a "coherent" architectural layout, respecting the original terracing effect on both sides. The plans have also been given the go-ahead of the Design Ad- visory Committee. The hotel was sold by con- struction magnate Charles Poli- dano to FTI, a company owned by German company Frosch Touristik, in 2011. The Riviera, formerly the Solemar, was the centre of a planning controversy in the late 1990s and the early 2000s. Polidano first applied for an extension of the pre-existing Solemar hotel in 1997, but de- spite a negative recommen- dation by the Planning Di- rectorate, the extension was approved by the Malta Environ- ment and Planning Authority. In 1998, Polidano applied for another extension, but the ap- plication was refused in 2000. Despite the refusal, the expan- sion was still carried out ille- gally. In 2001, MEPA was asked to sanction the extension retro- actively. The case caused huge embar- rassment within MEPA itself, creating a strong rift between the board and its planning ex- perts. While the Planning Di- rectorate had urged a refusal, arguing that the development was incompatible with the rural and coastal characteristics of the area and also ran counter to the Structure Plan, the MEPA board proceeded to legalise the development after imposing a Lm200,000 (€460,000) fine on Polidano. NOTICE TO CREDITORS Brian Tonna, appointed by the Malta Financial Services Authority with effect from 29 September 2011 in accordance with article 28(1) of the Insurance Business Act (Chapter 403 of the Laws of Malta) as liquidator of European Insurance Group Limited (C 35708), an insurance company in liquidation having its registered address at The Penthouse, Suite 2, Capital Business Centre, Entrance C, Triq taz-Zwejt, San Gwann SGN3000, Malta (the "Company"), hereby communicates that the list of creditors of European Insurance Group Limited has been published on the website http://www.eigforyou.com/. Creditors will receive an identification number in order to verify their claim against the list. Creditors appearing on the list have a maximum period of two (2) months from the date of this notice to contest the quantum of their respective claim as it appears on the list, by letter to the liquidator. Furthermore, creditors who are not featured in the list because they have not yet submitted a claim against the Company are informed that should they fail to prove their claim within two (2) months from the date of this notice, they shall be excluded from the benefit of any distribution which may be made in future. The Riviera Hotel at Marfa a small 16-room hotel in the 1960s, but now contains 242 rooms