Former Burmarrad winery to make way for retail centre

Burmarrad is set to have its own retail centre on the site of an abandoned winery after the Malta Environment and Planning Authority yesterday approved the demolition of the derelict Farmers’ Wine building. 

The winery is to be replaced by a retail centre having the same footprint, but which will be 1.4 metres higher.

The development proposed by Oliver Brownrigg, who owns BT Commercial Limited, is set to include a 1,035 square metre retail area, 900 square metres of offices, storage facilities and a large surface car park for 102 cars on a paved area next to the building.

Three MEPA board members, including Environment Planning Commission board chairman Elisabeth Ellul, voted in favour while biologist Charles Grech voted against. 

The case officer report issued last week recommended the approval of the new development, overruling the objections made by the authority’s Environment Protection Directorate.

While the Planning Directorate considered the development as “aesthetically acceptable” and an “environmental improvement” over the present situation, the Environment Protection Directorate was firmly opposed.

The EPD considered the development unacceptable, as it would result in “new urban activities” in the countryside and in “further urban sprawl” and “excessive formalisation” in an area which is located outside development zones.  The EPD also expressed concern on the “substantial increase in hard surfacing” required for the proposed car park.

In their submissions to MEPA the developer’s architects claimed “the surrounding grounds have been left to deteriorate and that the site today constitutes a major eyesore in the Burmarrad area”. It was the approval of the new rural policy in 2014 which spurred the developers to embark on a project to re-develop the area, which has a “positive impact” on the environment.

The new policy allows the demolition of existing agricultural buildings in the ODZ to be rebuilt and redeveloped. Previously, agricultural ODZ buildings such as wineries could not be redeveloped for other purposes.

According to the developers, through the provision of adequate onsite parking, the new retail development will serve as a “regional magnet”, attracting customers from adjacent towns and relieving pressure from town centres.

In 2009 MEPA had issued an enforcement order against the change of use of the site from one used for the manufacture of wine to one where vehicles are stored. The enforcement was closed in 2011 when MEPA approved internal alterations to the existing building.