The heart of Paceville is only about a quarter of a mile square. It is smaller than Soho, in London, but probably packs as many entertainment, restaurant, shopping and residential facilities as that other ‘mecca of fun’. The pressure on residents living there is unconscionable. The raw crime statistics do not begin to describe the squalid picture on the ground.
Paceville has grown in an uncontrolled manner for decades. Traffic management and keeping the area clean and tidy are major problems. Balancing the needs of residents, who seek peace and quiet, with those who run commercial establishments and whose livelihoods depend on it is difficult. The need to bring some sort of order and structure to the way it is managed and controlled has long been recognised as essential.
A master plan by the Planning Authority, themed Paceville – Malta’s Prime Coastal Location: Development Framework, envisages that Paceville will be transformed within a few years into “a liveable urban space”.
The planning watchdog’s master plan, developed by international infrastructure and planning experts, Mott MacDonald and Broadway Malyan, is no less than an attempt at providing a comprehensive regeneration plan that brings together all the elements necessary for a sweeping change of this chaotic and blighted area, with the potential to transform it from a shabby, down-market night-life site to a prime coastal location with a mix of five-star hotels, high-rise buildings, new homes and businesses living together in harmony stretching from Spinola Bay to St George’s Bay.
The Planning Authority’s vision is more than simply a comprehensive development plan. It is a plan for bulldozing – or, at least, greatly tidying up - much of what exists in Paceville, except for high-end properties like Portomaso and the Business Tower, the Hilton Hotel and the Westin Dragonara, and introducing a “new heart” for the night life in the area (the “Paceviille Plaza”), the transformation of the St George’s Bay area (the “St George’s Parade”) and an “iconic skyline” with about half a dozen new high-rise towers.
But the aspect that marks a major new initiative in Maltese planning history is that this 200-page master-plan provides, for the first time, a comprehensive picture of the cumulative impact of what is proposed, embracing not only the individual construction developments but also the effects on the infrastructure of the area.
This leads logically to the consequential consideration of a proper, all-embracing transportation strategy and the road work and public transport connections to support it. The Mott MacDonald plan puts forward three options for the future development of transport strategies for the area. These contain exciting proposals for greater pedestrianisation projects there and ambitious plans for reducing the over-congestion prevalent around the whole area through the building of two tunnels, one of which would take traffic directly to the coast-road and the other which would run under Paceville itself.
These would be combined with an “intelligent transportation system” that would improve traffic flow through and around the area and facilitate parking.
The plan envisages that public transport “would not be more than four minutes walk away from a public transport node”.
The Planning Authority is to be commended for coming up with such a coordinated master-plan for what the country’s prime tourism area. Although presented as a plan for 2020, there can be no doubt that this radical and welcome regeneration of Paceville is likely to run for at least another 20 years or more. The way it is managed will be crucial.