PA set to approve five-storey block on Naxxar’s Pjazza Ċelsi, near trade fair

Previous plans sent back to drawing board after PA asked for better design and more greenery

The open field by the Naxxar former trade fair area, will be turned into a five-storey complex
The open field by the Naxxar former trade fair area, will be turned into a five-storey complex

The Planning Authority’s development management directorate is recommending the approval of a five-storey, 71 unit apartment block in an open field by the Pjazza Ċelsi farmhouse in Naxxar, just 150m off Palazzo Parisio.

The plans have been amended after the PA board requested better design and more greenery to be integrated into the block, even though the case officer who had reviewed the development had recommended approval.

Originally the case officer had considered the plans “a positive development of the urban fabric”, claiming the apartment complex would be “an adequate transition” between Naxxar’s urban conservation area (UCA), and an as-yet unapproved nine-storey development adjacent to it, which is still stoking controversy.

In the latest report, the case officer now says the development is being “positively considered” because the “revised design will contribute even more than the previous one to a positive development of the urban fabric together with an adequate transition with the Urban Conservation Area addressing the concerns that were previously raised by the Board”.

A final decision on the development proposed by developer Charles Camilleri will be taken by the Planning Board on 22 July.

The most significant change in the latest plans is the improved transition between an existing old farmhouse, and one of the blank party walls created by the building. No changes have been made to the height of the new building.

The new plans include more planters, a different colour scheme and a redesign of the balconies and apertures.

But there is little change in the overall impact of the project on Naxxar’s townscape.

In January the PA board wanted changes after showing concerns ver the massing and design of the building. The case officer’s report notes that the inclusion of more planters in the latest proposal “not only contributes to the residential amenity of each unit but provides also visual interest within the surrounding context”.

The façade in the UCA overlooking Pjazza Celsi will be developed to the height of two floors and treated with traditional franka stone and horizontal lines “that act as subtle shadow gaps in order to brake the main volume providing a visual articulation on different planes”.

The area where the development is being proposed is described as one “by large areas of undeveloped land” and by a “lack of definition and articulation of the private and public open space” that may – if not planned well – lead to an urban sprawl without due consideration to the traditional core of Naxxar.

It was a zoning application approved in 2017 which first established a building height of 17.5m in this area of Naxxar, paving the way for this and other similar developments in the vicinity. The Superintendence for Cultural Heritage and the PA’s Design Advisory Committee objected to Camilleri’s development as proposed, claiming that it would have a negative impact on the UCA.

They recommended a decrease in volume to minimise the impact on the vernacular buildings in the narrow streets of the UCA.