The Lija local council has warned the planning authority not to allow a development to go beyond two floors in the vicinity of the town's prized Belvedere after a new application was filed on the same site that was recently at the centre of controversy.

The warning is more of a pre-emptive move as the permit application filed is for a two-storey apartment block with basement. In fact, the council has no objections to the application in its present form but stressed that it will not accept any amendments that would increase the building height by, for instance, turning the basement into a semi-basement.

The call comes after a long battle against a previous four-storey development that was won by the council last September when the Malta Environment and Planning Authority issued a conservation order stopping the construction of the apartment complex well after a permit had been issued. The council had insisted from the beginning that the development should not be allowed in the town's main thoroughfare which connects the Belvedere to the church.

At first Mepa approved the project on the basis of an anomaly in the local plans, switching the two-storey building to one of four storeys. Later, the authority had a change of heart and blocked the development to threats of legal action by the people behind it.

Now, the council will not take any chances and has informed the authority through a legal letter that it would object to any amendments, such as the inclusion of a semi-basement that would increase the building height by six courses.

The council also requested Mepa to carry out verified photomontages of the proposed development, taking the entire street into context. Lija mayor Ian Castaldi Paris said that the plans submitted to Mepa only portray the proposed development without taking the entire street into context.

The Lija council is also pushing to see the proposed design of the façade to ensure that it will blend with the surrounding buildings.