Zurrieq: pencil development next to historic centre

The Planning Authority has approved a five-storey development in Triq Santa Katerina next to Zurrieq’s Urban Conservation Area, a stone’s throw from the parish church of St. Catherine and the locality’s primary school. The area is mostly characterised by two-storey traditional townhouses.

The permit was issued on the basis of photomontages showing a presently inexistent floor on a nearby heritage building.

The approved development will have a height of almost 16m but just 3.6 metres wide, a clear example of a pencil development.

The block will tower over a building of architectural and cultural heritage value within the UCA, as described in representations by the Superintendence of Cultural Heritage and the Zurrieq local council, both of which were brushed aside by the PA.

The Superintendence warned that the proposal will result in blank party walls on the UCA that cannot be mitigate. But the PA’s case officer, reccommending approval, rebutted this argument by referring to ħ photomontages showing the impact of “potential development” in the area, on the UCA boundary.

The renders depict a presently inexistent third floor on a heritage building adjacent to the proposed development. In fact, the photomontages refer to “potential development of adjacent site”, and not the existing situation. But it is unclear under which policy the PA can allow a full extra floor on a heritage building in the UCA.

The renders ignore the slope of the road and depict a washroom on an adjacent residence that is considerably larger than the one recently constructed.

Objectors insist that various applicable policies of the Development Design Control Policy (DC15) aimed at creating a transition between historic village cores and surrounding development have been disregarded.

But the case officer said the DC15’s Annex 2 translate the three-storey height limitation into a 16.3m height, later reduced to 15.5m under the approved plans. While acknowledging that the guidelines require a transition for buildings directly adjacent to the UCA, the case officer referred to another property located between the two buildings, saying this meant there was no requirement for a transition; and that the owners in question had a “vested right” to build according to the maximum height permitted by the local plan. The permit was issued to Pierre Darmanin in December 2022.