eNGOs, Residents and PA Board rebuff Tigne Point in Naxxar

eNGOs Graffitti and FAA have participated in the Planning Authority hearing re the 10-storey mega-project applied for just 70m away from the scheduled Palazzo Parisio and the Naxxar urban conservation area, on the parking area of the former Trade Fair at Naxxar.

The NGOs strongly objected to the impact of 113 more apartments which will generate 2,300 car trips a day, in an area already suffering from heavy traffic. The NGOs pointed to the shortcomings of the Traffic Impact Assessment which found no serious long-term impacts, when the Social Impact Statement asserted that the traffic impact would be unhealthy for residents.

FAA representative Astrid Vella maintained that this project should not even have been considered since it violates the parameters of medium-rise buildings which cannot be located on ridges over 25m above sea level, when this site is 126m high, a point that PA Board Chairman Vince Cassar agreed to. Vella also emphasised the Superintendent of Cultural Heritage (SCH) points that “the proposal’s major impacts will affect views and vista from Mdina and San Pawl Il-Baħar, in relation to the urban skylines of Mosta and Naxxar, currently dominated by the respective Parish Churches. The proposal will permanently and undeniably reconfigure the visual appearance of the most prominent urban centres of the central-north area, proposing a massive solid block which is not taking into consideration the traditional and Maltese skyline.”

The NGOs are incredulous that in speaking at length in favour of project, Martin Saliba PA CEO ignored all the SCH, NGOs and residents’ calls for the preservation of Malta’s most prominent vistas and village quality of life, preferring to bemoan the fact that the developers and the Planning Authority had invested so much time in drawing up and revising plans for this project. Residents refuted the Chairman Saliba’s claims that this project would create much-needed employment and facilities, stressing that the area is already served with bars, restaurants, gyms and nurseries in the immediate vicinity.

Moviment Graffiti reiterated its calls for the unequivocal rejection of the proposed mega-development which is clearly out of proportion with its surroundings, will rob residents and visitors of much-needed open spaces, and will also lead to an immediate and steep decline in the quality of life. Residents argued that the area needs to be planned holistically, in view of several other projects that are planned for the area. Indeed, at one point different developers’ architects and lawyers started arguing between themselves for their right – to ruin the area.

eNGO representative Annick Bonello raised the importance of the area as an archaeological zone, arguing that it was not right that Malta’s heritage be sacrificed to another commercial project. She pointed to the fact that this development abuts on the Naxxar Urban Core and several scheduled buildings, including the windmill and Palazzo Parisio, asserting that the visual impact photo from the Palazzo’s garden underplayed the project’s visual impact.

In his patronizing replies, the developers’ architect, Christian Spiteri, waxed lyrical about creating a Tigné Point or Portomaso for Naxxar. He maintained that the project was being opposed simply because the Maltese are not used to tall buildings and are lacking in planning education. In reply to the Board’s concerns about the impact on long-range views, the architect said that obviously the building will be visible from a helicopter. The developer concluded by threatening that if this option is refused they would produce a project that “fills the whole bloody land, to add more units, create more drainage and traffic and look like a social housing estate”.

The Planning Board Chairman concluded by asking the developer if he preferred to suspend the hearing in order to take his time to prepare a different project proposal, which offer the developer accepted.

Flimkien għal Ambjent Aħjar and Moviment Graffitti welcome the decision to replan this site more in keeping with Naxxar’s village character, saying that residents have had enough of their quality of life coming second to commercial interests.