ERA denounces history of piecemeal additions at Riviera Hotel

While the Planning Directorate is recommending approval, the Environment and Resources Authority is firmly opposing the piecemeal addition of a fifth floor

The Riviera Hotel at Marfa a small 16-room hotel in the 1960s, but now contains 242 rooms
The Riviera Hotel at Marfa a small 16-room hotel in the 1960s, but now contains 242 rooms

The Planning Authority board will be meeting tomorrow to decide on whether to allow the addition of an extra 53 rooms to the Riviera Hotel in Marfa, which already had a substantial extension approved in 2015. 

The changes will involve the creation of an additional fifth floor. While the Planning Directorate is recommending approval of the latest application, the Environment and Resources Authority is firmly opposing the piecemeal addition.

In a memo issued on 19 January, the ERA noted that the Riviera Hotel has been the subject of 10 approved applications which have “progressively resulted in the further commitment and encroachment onto the surrounding rural land”.

In this way the 61-room hotel constructed in the 1960s grew to a 242-room hotel in 2001, and is now set to increase from the 293 rooms approved in 2015 to 346 rooms.

The Planning Authority had exempted the previous extension approved in 2015 from the need of an Environment Impact Assessment. 

But this exemption was conditional on “the strict containment of the development so as to avoid further commitment of fresh land outside the development zone”. 

The ERA contends that this condition was not respected because the permit included the development of a car park on 2,143 square metres of undeveloped land.

The proposed 53 rooms in addition to what was approved in 2015 will “intensify the overall visual impact, which would be difficult to mitigate effectively”, the ERA argues.  

In 2015 the hotel was allowed a recessed fifth floor to minimise the visual impact, but this will change to a full-blown floor if the application is approved.  The Planning Directorate argues that this will improve the design of the building by creating a “coherent” architectural layout, respecting the original terracing effect on both sides. The plans have also been given the go-ahead of the Design Advisory Committee.

The hotel was sold by construction magnate Charles Polidano to FTI, a company owned by German company Frosch Touristik, in 2011.

The Riviera, formerly the Solemar, was the centre of a planning controversy in the late 1990s and the early 2000s.

Polidano first applied for an extension of the pre-existing Solemar hotel in 1997, but despite a negative recommendation by the Planning Directorate, the extension was approved by the Malta Environment and Planning Authority. 

In 1998, Polidano applied for another extension, but the application was refused in 2000. Despite the refusal, the expansion was still carried out illegally. In 2001, MEPA was asked to sanction the extension retroactively.

The case caused huge embarrassment within MEPA itself, creating a strong rift between the board and its planning experts. While the Planning Directorate had urged a refusal, arguing that the development was incompatible with the rural and coastal characteristics of the area and also ran counter to the Structure Plan, the MEPA board proceeded to legalise the development after imposing a Lm200,000 (€460,000) fine on Polidano.