Marsaxlokk FC hostel, elderly home okayed by heritage watchdogs

A football club project for a four-storey high home for the elderly and hostel has been cleared by the Superintendence for Cultural Heritage, the Planning Authority’s design advisory panel, and the Environment and Resources Authority.

Set to visually dominate the area, Marsaxlokk FC’s project will take place on land outside development zones that had been turned into a car park in 2016, and on a public garden.

ERA said it would not object to the project provided that a proposed roof garden could support “large mature vegetation” similar to that currently existing in the public garden, which will partly make way for the new development.

And the Superintendence for Cultural Heritage – which had initially expressed concern on the massing of the proposed old people’s home – has now backtracked, welcoming minor changes made in the latest plans and photomontages. In issuing its clearance, the SCH noted “the improved design” which creates “a breakdown of the massing of the area”, while recommending that the “façade is constructed in fair-faced masonry”.

The PA’s design committee, which had initially expressed some concern that the proposed structure is rather massive – particularly at the sea-front end of the project – welcomed the latest photomontage and concluded that it is not “averse to the revised proposal strictly from a design point of view”.

The DAC had previously called for the façade to be further broken down, so as to reduce the apparent mass, and to incorporate a lighter colour-scheme.

But the development still needs the approval of the Social Care Standards Authority, which is always consulted on applications for old people’s homes.

The old people’s home will be situated across the road from a boatyard where maintenance work, including painting and spraying, is performed on large fishing boats. And it will also have windows overlooking the revamped Marsaxlokk football ground.

But “performance indicators” issued by the SCSA oblige service providers to “promote a reduced noise environment within both communal and private areas” of old people’s homes while stipulating that the design of such buildings should promote a “calm experience”.

Moreover the lighting in such homes should be “domestic” in character. “You can imagine the light pollution from flood-lights and the noise from the game itself and from supporters,” one resident objecting to the development told MaltaToday.