Residents are joining forces in their opposition to a proposal to turn a centuries-old townhouse on Lija’s main street into a boutique hotel.
They maintain the quaint village of Lija is not the right place for a hotel.
A petition residents have started online is gathering support, with more than 320 having already signed it at the time of writing yesterday.
The Malta Environment and Planning Authority received the application in February. The applicant is requesting a permit to cover the rehabilitation of the old house in Main Street, and convert it into a high-end boutique hotel with nine suites, a restaurant, a bar and ancillary facilities, an outdoor pool and a receded additional floor level.
PA 02822/15 was submitted by Roland Goelles, on behalf of Prodomo Ltd, a company with a registered address in Attard and which was incorporated in Malta in April 2013. The architect responsible for the project is Mark Montebello.
Speaking to the Times of Malta yesterday, the residents stressed that the house earmarked for the development was at the heart of the village, in what was considered to be an urban conservation area.
“Urban conservation areas are the last zones where residents are supposedly secure from neighbouring high-rise developments. We object to the sidestepping of this provision through the application for a hotel,” a spokesman for the residents said when contacted.
He said there was “serious concern” that the development could “set a precedent for the commercialisation of similar large properties in our village cores”.
Some of the last few remaining oasis of peace and tranquillity in the village
Apart from the possible negative effect the development would have on the value of their properties, the residents were also worried about the proposed bar and restaurant.
“These will be sources of noise and light pollution at all times of the day and late into the nights. We object to their open-air presence that will make it impossible to take noise abating measures,” the residents said.
They are worried the new hotel would be used for weddings, celebrations, parties and conferences.
They are also worried by the prospects of more traffic and parking problems, which, they said, were already bad.
“The volume of traffic and of parked cars will get worse in the highly-congested narrow streets of Lija considering the number of hotel guests and hotel staff. The proposed hotel entrance is situated in a part of the road that is so narrow there are no pavements on either side and this will affect traffic flow during drop-offs/pickups not to mention issues with pedestrians.”
The residents said the gardens were classified as being strategic open enclaves and were some of the last few remaining “oasis of peace and tranquillity in the village”.
“Their commercialisation will negatively affect the natural and peaceful environment of the residential heart of Lija and may set a precedent for all similar dwellings in Malta and Gozo,” they said.
The application was expected to be discussed at an urgent Lija council meeting in the coming days, mayor Magda Magri Naudi told the Times of Malta when contacted yesterday.
She said the council would rope in its lawyers and architects to study the proposal and register any objections. She noted the council only received the application last Wednesday, on the eve of the village feast, and now only had less than two weeks to register any objections.
“I am never against sustainable development but only if it does not have an impact. We need to ensure there is a proper environment impact assessment and a traffic impact study as we already have enough traffic problems here.”
The petition is available at www.change.org/p/mepa-stop-the-development-of-a-hotel-in-the-heart-of-lija.