A group of local councils, NGOs and irate residents are objecting to a proposed retirement village in “one of the last green spaces” between Swieqi and San Ġwann.
“This is one of the last green lungs in a large residential zone which is constantly experiencing population growth and everything that goes with that. Developing it would be a death sentence,” Swieqi mayor Noel Muscat told the Times of Malta.
He was reacting to plans for an active quarry in the Wied Għomor valley to be developed into a 133-room elderly people’s complex.
According to plans submitted to the Planning Authority, the development would occupy eight per cent of the quarry and rise two storeys above it.
A report by the planning directorate has recommended its approval and a final decision is expected on Thursday.
Sources within the Planning Authority said the board was leaning towards giving the project the thumbs up.
In 2011, however, the authority board said that any development on the site could not occupy more than five per cent of the quarry – something the developers have fought against. They argue that the extent of the developable floor space in the quarry is “extremely important for the viability of the rehabilitation of the valley”.
Mr Muscat said he had been inundated with complaints from residents for the project to be halted.
“This valley is a main artery, especially with the upcoming Kappara roadworks. We can’t be building there too. I don’t know what the authorities are thinking, or if they’re thinking at all,” he said.
Mr Muscat is joined by the San Ġwann and St Julian’s local councils in objecting to the project.
Front Ħarsien ODZ, which forms part of a group of several NGOs also opposed to the project, has already insisted that quarries should be landscaped and re-used for agricultural or public recreational purposes.
The Front is scheduled to hold a press conference flagging more concerns today.
“We recognise that such quarries are in private ownership and are presently eyesores. But this should not be an excuse for new buildings in rural areas,” the NGO has said.
The Front noted that the local plan stipulates that any new building is to “occupy a minimal part of the site”.
According to the Planning Authority’s Social Facilities and Community Care Topic Paper, old people’s homes should be located close to or within a town or village centres to ensure the full integration of the elderly in local communities.