Balzan house survives another demolition bid

A historic townhouse in the Balzan village core will remain intact after the planning authority overturned the fifth consecutive application to demolish it and build terraced houses instead.

The planning application was the fifth attempt by construction magnate Charles Polidano to drop the old building, which is in a scheduled zone, and replace it with six terraced houses, a swimming pool and an underground garage.

The two-storey townhouse, in Main Road, is adjacent to a 300-year old palazzin, used by Grand Master De Rohan as his country residence, which is also owned by Mr Polidano. The townhouse forms part of a series of traditional village houses and tucked away behind it is a huge garden that has an underground water cistern that was converted into a World War II shelter.

The application proposed demolishing the building to widen an adjacent alley, which would then have led to an enclave of new terraced houses surrounding a pool.

The planning board unanimously voted against the application be­cause it did not comply with a number of planning policies for the area.

About 15 Balzan residents turned up for the hearing and a number of them spoke out against the development, saying it would ruin the streetscape and the village core.

Resident and historian Carmel Bezzina told the planning board destroying the garden would remove one of the few “green lungs” left in Balzan. “If this development takes place, then the streetscape would be ruined,” he added.

This statement was echoed by David Mallia, from the planning directorate, who pointed out the house and the surrounding enclave were “part and parcel” of the village fabric.

“Removing a house will cause a void in Main Street,” he said.

Mr Mallia rebutted claims by project architect Ray Demicoli who argued there were policies to construct buildings for social cases in the area. “The policy is for people with slightly lower aspirations. It refers to social housing and not flats with a pool,” Mr Mallia said.

It was also ironic and “a bit tongue-in-cheek” that the developer wanted to restore part of the garden, which had been ruined by the former owners, he pointed out.

In fact, the garden was issued with an enforcement notice in 2004 after a number of trees were illegally removed and the high garden walls breached for heavy machinery to gain access. The application was the fifth filed in the past seven years. The first was submitted in March 2003, asking to make alterations to a façade and demolish the house and palazzin. It was refused that September and followed by appeals and requests for reconsiderations, with a final refusal coming in May 2004.

Mr Polidano’s lawyer Jesmond Manicaro on Thursday assured the board the old building adjoining the townhouse would not be touched. Instead, there were plans to restore the palazzin using the revenue generated from the terraced houses.

However, Astrid Vella, from Flimkien għal Ambjent Aħjar, argued there were other ways of restoring houses and it did not need to be incorporated in a development. Also, the gardens formed an integral part of the property and the planning authority’s policies clearly laid down that such green enclaves should be protected, she said.