The Planning Authority has taken a dim view of the proposed demolition of a 155-year Sliema townhouse, despite the developer insisting that “saving this one building won’t change anything”.
The house in St Mary’s Street, part of a well-preserved row of historic houses marred only by one newer development, is proposed to make way for an eight-storey hotel, which will become the highest building in the street.
The application is recommended for approval by the PA case officer.
But during a hearing this morning, Planning Commission chairperson Elizabeth Ellul raised several reservations about the project, among them the objections of the Superintendence of Cultural Heritage (SCH), as well as those of NGOs, residents, and the Sliema local council.
The case has been deferred until March 1 to allow the developer to respond.
During today’s hearing, which came a day after a press conference held by Flimkien Għal Ambjent Aħjar and the Sliema Heritage Society to rally support for the threatened townhouse, the project architect gave short shrift to objections.
He stressed that the property, built in 1861, lay outside the Urban Conservation Area and that the design for the proposed hotel would recreate a number of its characteristic features.
Pointing to a number of other recent developments and similar demolitions in the same area, he argued that it would be impossible to halt all developments to which the SCH objected and that the majority of other objections – some 40 in all – were a copy of the objection presented by FAA.
Sliema has seen a marked increase in applications for apartment blocks and guesthouses in place of traditional townhouses over the last year, despite the consistent objections of the local council and environmental groups.
Many of the developments were approved by the PA despite the complaints, with the authority commonly citing existing apartment blocks in the same area as evidence that the row is already ‘committed’.
Speaking at a press conference on Tuesday, FAA environment officer Tara Cassar said Sliema was simply the most extreme example of a process of destruction taking place in several towns and villages.
“If it is the policies that are allowing this, then the policies must be revised. The PA should not be there for developers but for the general public.”