Westin developers drop plans to relocate historical gate after Superintendence objects

The owners of Westin Dragonara Hotel have presented plans for the construction of 145 serviced apartments over 12 floors on the carpark behind the historical entrenchment wall.

The plans presented by Peninsula Holdings Ltd also proposed the dismantling and relocation of a historical arch at the entrance of the car park. However, the company has told MaltaToday that the proposed relocation has been dropped following objections by the Superintendence for Cultural Heritage.

The serviced apartments are being proposed under a hotel classification, thus enabling the developers to rise higher than the four-storey limitation permitted in the local plan. This is because a policy regulating hotel heights approved in 2014 permits such developments to rise above local plan limits.

Serviced apartments are increasingly being proposed in major development projects including the Jerma site (259 serviced apartments) and the Villa Rosa project in St George’s Bay (789 serviced apartments).

A substantial part of the 8,800sq.m site had been zoned for a four-storey residential development in the 2006 local plan. But subsequently the local plan was changed to enable mixed commercial development in the area.

The local plan allowed for 33% of the site to be used for offices, 55% for a hotel, 10% for residential use, and 2% for food and beverage establishments. But in 2022 the PA once again re-zoned the area to integrate it in the “entertainment priority area” which permits an even wider range of allowable uses including restaurants, bars, hostels, retail, supermarkets, dance halls and clubs.

The original plans submitted to the Planning Authority foresaw the dismantling, restoration and re-erection in a different position of a historical gate on the seaward side of the property. The gate is not the iconic one that characterises the entrance to the Westin Dragonara resort.

But the proposed relocation of the Grade One monument was deemed objectionable in principle by the Superintendence for Cultural Heritage which is insisting that the gate be retained in its present position and “respectfully integrated in the proposed development”.

The SCH is also insisting on the introduction of a landscaped buffer between the proposed development and the entrenchment wall “to preserve a degree of legibility of this historic feature.” The Superintendence has also asked for photomontages of the proposed development from both the seaward and landward sides.

The Environment and Resources Authority has also expressed concern that the interventions proposed which include a large pool excavated in the middle of the site, will encroach onto the existing natural land and coastline. ERA is insisting that the proposed development should be limited to the existing committed parking footprint.