Updated Friday 12pm
The Planning Authority has deferred a decision on the development of a large residence for the elderly outside the development zone in the limits of Naxxar.
The project will see the construction of a three-storey, 234-bed facility on a 4,748 square-metre ODZ site on Għargħur Road, close to the telecommunications station.
The area is designated by the local plan as a “strategic open gap” where no urban development is allowed “except for essential small-scale utility infrastructure”.
The Environment and Resources Authority is objecting to the proposal, which, it says, will contribute to further urban development beyond the development zone boundary. The regulator also raised concerns over the “visually intrusive” massing as well as noise and dust during construction.
The area is designated by the local plan as a strategic open gap
The Għargħur local council, environmental organisations and a group of about 50 residents are all opposing the development alongside the ERA.
The permit application comes after a previous attempt to develop a residence for the elderly on the site as a ‘rebuilding’ of an old chicken farm demolished in 2000.
This approach was blocked by the PA and the current proposal hinges on a site-selection exercise carried out by the developer which established there were “no feasible alternatives” for the development to be sited elsewhere. The exercise turned up two potential sites within the Naxxar development boundaries but both were deemed not to be financially feasible, allowing the developers to turn their sights back to the ODZ plot.
Naxxar is already home to three other similar facilities: the Hilltop Gardens Retirement Village, the Simblija Care Home and the Holy Family Home for the Elderly.
Din l-Art Ħelwa warned that approving the ODZ project will create a precedent to slowly diminish the size of the strategic gap.
Flimkien Għal Ambjent Aħjar also argued that placing a home for the elderly on the peripheries of the town will limit the movement of the residents to the boundaries and inhibit any opportunity for integration within the local community.
The potential increase in traffic worries the Għargħur local council, which noted that the area is already congested with traffic exiting the town towards the bypass, pointing out that any increase would tarnish the rural characteristics for which the village is known.
Residents, meanwhile, have contested the characterisation of the site as “disturbed land”, arguing that illegal development had taken place in the past and that the site should be rehabilitated.