Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/811845
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 16 APRIL 2017 2 News JAMES DEBONO GZIRA is undergoing the most radical of planning incursions, with yet another high-rise devel- opment mooted deep inside the urban fabric around the Golden Harvest factory. Gozitan developer Euchar Vel- la's firm Karkanja, is proposing the construction of two intercon- nected towers – one rising to 13 storeys, and the higher one rising to 29. The project includes 100 new residential units as well as the ubiquitous supermarket. The new high-rise project is be- ing proposed instead of the old Golden Harvest factory that faces the Turu Colombo square, outside the Gzira secondarly school along Triq Nazju Ellul and Triq Reid. But the area is hardly suitable under the controversial high-rise policy introduced by the Planning Authority, which requires land for high-rise projects to be bounded by four streets. So the developers are planning to cut themselves out a new street so that the project can be realised. In comments to MaltaToday, Eu- char Vella said the project would regenerate the area by creating more open space. "Our intention is to create 2,000 square metres of open space on what is a 2,600 sq.m site… and also to allocate underground parking space to ensure that Misrah Turu Colombo is no longer used as a car park. In this way the project will create even more open space to the benefit of residents." Undoubtedly, the 29-storey tower is about to place the mostly two-to-three storey housing in the area in the shade. But Vella said the main shadowing effect would be on the neighbouring school and on Turu Colombo square, and not on surrounding residences. He did however acknowledge that the project will have a visual impact. "But one has to balance the visual impact with the benefits of creating more open space by developing a smaller percentage of the site by opting for high-rise instead of low-rise development," Vella said. Gzira is one of the localities iden- tified for high-rise development alongside St Julian's, Qawra, Tigné in Sliema, and Mriehel. Vella defended the residential nature of the new development, arguing that the area in question is residential in nature and less ideal for office and commercial develop- ment. Hypothetical road proposed The FAR (floor-area ratio) policy which makes the development of high-rise conditional on a pro- portional creation of open spaces, states that only sites completely surrounded by existing or planned streets are eligible "to achieve a tall or a medium-rise building." But the site identified for the two towers is not presently surrounded by roads on all sides. Plans submitted to the PA indeed refer to an 880 sq.m "hypothetical road" which will be constructed as part of the new development. But Vella insisted that the high- rise towers will constitute stan- dalone developments surrounded by open space, and therefore the building will respect the policy – irrespective of whether a new road cutting across the site is developed. According to Vella the "hypo- thetical" road was being identi- fied in plans presented to the PA for the sake of calculating the area of open space which will be made available by the project, adding that the area occupied by the new road cannot be included in the FAR calculation, which offsets in- creased height with the creation of more open space. Plans submitted to the PA show that 1196 sq.m of land, on which part the towers will be developed – is eligible for the FAR mechanism; while the total site area, including the new road and three smaller sites on the other side of the hypo- thetical road, is set at 2696 sq.m. "Our intention is to incorporate the area occupied by the proposed 'road' as a public open space over and above the area of open space required by the FAR policy," Vella told Mal- taToday. The application refers to the 13-storey tower as "mid-rise" but the current policy refers to any struc- ture over 10 storeys as "high-rise". The FAR policy defines any build- ing over 10 storeys as high-rise and makes no such distinctions. The development will include a four-storey underground parking, with overlying commercial and retail facilities, a supermarket and residential units. In what could be another case of piecemeal development, in No- vember 2016 Karkanja also pre- sented a separate application to demolish the existing factory and dwellings and erect a boundary wall as "phase 1" of a "redevelop- ment project". The two applications will now be processed separately. This means that the demolition of the existing building would be approved before the new development is approved. Karkanja is not the sole owner of the entire site but has notified the other owners who have granted their consent to the development. Gzira is one of the locations des- ignated for high-rise development in a policy approved in 2015. So far the PA has already approved a 16-storey tower on the site of the former United Garage, called 14 East. An application for the addi- tion of five storeys on top of the commercial and residential tower has already been approved. Last week, MaltaToday reported news of an 18-storey office tower on the site of the former Wembley ice cream factory. A project that will include a 33-storey tower was already ap- proved in 2007 in absence of any policy regulating high-rise. The Metropolis tower's permit was re- newed in 2013. While the PA is formulating a masterplan regulating high-rise development in Paceville and in Mriehel, no such masterplan is be- ing planned for Gzira which is al- ready experiencing a construction boom that has seen the demolition of various old townhouses making way for new apartment blocks. jdebono@mediatoday.com.mt Two more towers in Gzira rising to 29 storeys on site of former Golden Harvest factory Gozo developers Karkanja front proposal for 29 and 13-storey tower project The former Golden Harvest factory on Turu Colombo square is being earmarked for two towers, with a 'hypothetical road' (green stripes) cutting through the block GZIRA BRACES ITSELF Sliema's neighbour turning into high-rise central From left: The 14 East tower in central Gzira, currently at 16 storeys high; the former Wembley ice-cream factory, earmarked for an 18-storey tower; and the gaping hole on Testaferrata Street, which since 2007 had been earmarked for a 33-storey tower