The Bay Street Complex in St Julian’s will rise to 10 storeys after the Planning Authority approved an extension of four floors to the existing hotel.
The development will see the demolition of the current pool area on the seventh floor of the complex for the construction of four levels accommodating 71 new guest rooms, a gym and spa. The new roof level, on level 11, will include a larger pool and bar area.
The height limitation for the area is just six floors with semi-basement, but the proposal benefited from a local plan policy which specifies that hotels in the area may exceed this by one floor, as well as a separate policy for hotels granting two floors over and above that in the local plan.
This limitation was interpreted in metres to allow the 10 floors proposed.
A similar calculation was used in June to allow an eight-storey hotel in a residential area on Lourdes Lane, just up the road, where the height limitation is a mere three floors.
The Bay Street permit includes a condition stating that any subsequent proposals for change of use, even partial, for any purpose other than a hotel, will not be considered unless the additional floors are first removed.
The Malta Tourism Authority, which reviewed the proposal, said the project had a high level of design and that the extra floors would allow guests a greater degree of comfort.
No sanctioning for illegal zoo
The PA turned down an application to sanction an illegal zoo in Rabat, after the owner illegally converted agricultural land in the area known as Torri L-Abjad for the keeping of horses and dangerous animals.
Applicant Martin Farrugia had requested the sanctioning of stables, paddocks and cages, as well as permission to erect two tents and a new cage.
The Environment and Resources Authority (ERA) had described the development as a “flagrant example where no environmental considerations whatsoever have been regarded”, bemoaning “the scarring of traditional terraces and visual intrusion into the surrounding landscape”.
The decision comes two weeks after the PA agreed to sanction a similar illegal zoo in the limits of Siġġiewi against a €50,000 fine amid similar objections by the ERA.
Fish farm relocation approved
The PA finally approved a new offshore site for a tuna farm formerly at St Paul’s Bay, more than a year after its operating permits were revoked in an enforcement crackdown.
Malta Mariculture Ltd applied to relocate eight tuna pens to a new site 5.3 kilometres offshore from Sikka l-Bajda, reducing the number of cages to six while retaining the same volume.
The pens were removed from St Paul’s Bay in May ahead of an agreed deadline, but with no approved site to move to, they have been held in tow since then.
The offshore site approved yesterday is intended as a temporary measure for two years, while operators await the setting-up of a designated North-East Aquaculture Zone, complementing a similar site in the south, which is already operating at full capacity.