Old people’s home proposed on ODZ land in Żejtun

A new old people’s home is being proposed on 5,500sq.m of Outside Development Zone (ODZ) land in Żejtun, replacing a disused livestock farm with a three-storey elderly care facility, underground parking and a reservoir.

The outline application (PA/07394/26), submitted by Antoine Abela, who declared full ownership of the land in question, concerns a site along Triq il-Firies and Sqaq il-Wied on the outskirts of Żejtun, just outside the development zone boundary.

The site is designated as an Agricultural Area in the South Malta Local Plan, where policy SMAG 01 restricts development to buildings, structures and uses essential to agriculture.

However, the Strategic Plan for Environment and Development (SPED) allows elderly care homes on ODZ land in exceptional circumstances, provided applicants demonstrate that feasible alternatives within development zones and on previously developed sites have been exhausted. Its rural policy also allows the conversion of disused farms for other purposes only where this improves the existing environmental situation.

Plans of the proposed development

These provisions have become controversial because they offer a potential route for substantial development in the countryside in the name of social infrastructure.

One precedent is an elderly care home proposed on a disused poultry farm between Naxxar and Għargħur. Initially approved in December 2023, the permit was revoked by the Environment and Planning Review Tribunal in February 2025. The application was approved again in August 2025 after the developer agreed to remove a floor.

In Żabbar, the Planning Authority unanimously refused a four-storey home for more than 200 elderly residents on over 4,000sq.m of agricultural land overlooking Wied ta’ Mazza. The project included 92 rooms, three basement levels and 153 parking spaces. The developer appealed in September, arguing that the authority had decided before key technical and environmental studies could be completed.

The Żejtun proposal remains at outline stage, with the Planning Authority yet to determine whether the site is acceptable in principle for an elderly care facility.