Deceitful Scheduling of Villa Barbaro
Last week the Planning Authority announced with much fanfare, the extension of the buffer zone around Villa Barbaro, thought to be the oldest palazzo in the South. It was only when one read the small print that the truth came out: far from protecting Villa Barbaro, the supposedly protective buffer zone allows buildings across from Villa Barbaro to rise to 15.4m, the equivalent of 5 storeys. This is the result of the dishonest machinations of the Development Control Design Policy Guidance of 2015 which sets the ‘official’ height of three storeys at 15.4, or 5m per storey plus ‘opramorta’, when the real height per storey is 2.75m. This was done to allow developers to fit 5 storeys into a three-storey permit.
Far from being a buffer, this will destroy the context of Grade 1 Villa Barbaro, which only rises to one and two storeys, rather than protecting it. Because this fake buffer zone allows 15.4m buildings opposite this heritage monument and its arcaded terrace, Villa Barbaro will be buried under a bastion of 5 storey blocks which have already been applied for and were just waiting for this ‘blessing’ to be granted a permit.
This approved height actually goes against the Planning Authority’s own commissioned report, recommending only 2 storeys, and also ignores its own much-trumpeted recent guidelines particularly for Grade 1 scheduled buildings which “require the highest in-depth analysis of their setting, its value and any potential adverse impacts on it from development proposals”, including “all levels of the context – immediate, wider and extended” and especially where developments are “larger in terms of height, volume, and density than the scale of buildings in the vicinity”. These guidelines refer to development applications within a 50-metre radius of a Grade building, while this sham buffer zone allows 5 storey development a mere 15 METRES away from a Grade 1 listed building.
The Superintendence of Cultural Heritage had called for refusal of a pending 5 storey application opposite, stating: “the proposed height will negatively impact Villa Barbaro’s setting. Views of historic buildings and adjoining gardens as well as Urban Conservation areas are to be protected. Moreover, the proposed development would result in the creation of a new dominant height in a streetscape comprised of two-storey buildings.” How could the same Superintendence now collaborate to endorse the same height it objected to opposite Villa Barbaro when the PA’s Circular 3/20 gives the Superintendence wide powers independently of the PA? “6.3 In those consultations …where the Executive Chairperson does not indicate the need to establish the proximity of the setting of a scheduled building, the SCH may, on its own motion, establish the proximity of the setting of a scheduled building …”
To designate a buffer zone 15.4 metres high, opposite a Grade 1 scheduled palazzo, in a street presently lined by two-storey buildings, makes a mockery of the whole concept of a buffer zone. Far from protecting the context of Villa Barbaro, it actually encourages the destruction of that context, with 5 storey blocks dwarfing the house and gardens, and casts a deep shadow of shame on the authorities responsible for the protection of our national heritage.